Life Bites
by AnyaSamara93
Summary: GSR, with some YoBling! later on. Sara has a secret, and Grissom finds out. They eventually end up in more danger than either of them ever imagined.
1. Unanswered questions are so embarrassing

Well, what can I say...I caught the bug...

I've read lots of stories with Grissom as a vampire, but as yet, Sara's never been a vampire. And considering I've just finished watching Karin, it kinda spurned me on. Hehe.

Quite a bit of inspiration is taken from Karin, which is a hilarious anime that I highly recommend. Fear not, if you're confused at first, things will become clearer later on.

Disclamier: I don't own CSI or Karin. I do, however, own Anju Maaka, but Yuna Kagesaki just doesn't know it yet.

* * *

Sara sat on the bench, staring blankly into her locker. Whenever she woke up, and her heart was beating faster, and it was hard to breathe, she knew it wasn't a good sign. She really should have called in sick, but that would mean lying to Grissom, and that was something she didn't really want to do.

"Hey, Sara!" Catherine strolled cheerfully into the locker room.

"Hey," Sara mumbled miserably in reply.

"Oh," Catherine lowered her voice, "That time of the month again?"

"Yeah."

"You could have called in sick."

"But if it became a habit, don't you think everyone would think it was strange that I was ill once a month?"

"True…but don't worry. We'll sort something out, we always do."

Sara smiled slightly, nodded and shut her locker door. Once Catherine had put her belongings in her locker, they headed to the break room together.

"I wonder if Gil's gonna pair himself with you tonight," grinned Catherine as they sat down opposite each other at the table.

"Shut up."

"Oh, come on, Sara, I know how you feel."

"For both our sakes, I hope we're not working together tonight."

Catherine frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Because whenever I work with him, it messes with my cycle."

"You never told me that!" Catherine's eyes widened.

"You never asked. Besides, it's not that important."

"Yeah, it is! If he's messing with your cycle, it could happen more often…"

"I don't want it to happen more often! Once a month is bad enough!"

Once everyone was in the break room, Grissom came and handed out assignments. And, as Catherine had predicted, he paired himself with Sara.

_Great_, thought Sara, _How am I supposed to concentrate on…anything…while he's around, especially in my current condition?_

As Grissom drove them to the crime scene, Sara stared intently at her feet and tried not to think about the man sat next to her.

_Why does this happen? Every time it gets worse!_

She suddenly realised something. She was alone. With Grissom. _Perfect_, she thought, moving towards him, _I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I just…_

The beeping of a car horn brought her back to reality, at which point she moved as far away from him as she could. _No, no, no, I can't do that, I can't!_

Just as they pulled up at the scene, Grissom put his hand on Sara's arm.

_Thud._

Her eyes widened.

"Sara, are you okay?" Grissom looked concerned.

_Thud._

"Yeah, I'm fine, no need to worry."

Sara was out of the car so fast that she was practically a blur. She grabbed her kit and power-walked over to Brass, who was stood by the crime scene tape.

Apparently, some college student had either been pushed or had jumped out of the window. And she and Grissom had to process the victim's bedroom. Together. That was bad enough, but for some reason, he always seemed to stay in close quarters. Not good at all.

How she was going to make it through the rest of her shift, she had no idea.

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Sara climbed into the driver's side of her car, shut the door and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

It turned out that the victim's room-mate went beserk when she found out that people knew that she still wet the bed, assumed that the victim had told everyone and pushed her out of the window. The only thing was, it was her boyfriend who'd spilled the beans.

Honestly. The reasons some people committed murder.

She'd managed to make it through the entire shift without doing something really stupid, but now, she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to cope. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent a text message to Catherine, consisting of three words: _Please help me._

She put her phone away, started the engine and soon found herself heading in the direction of the nearest park.

Once she was there, she leapt out of her car and walked swiftly along the path that lead through the park.

Thankfully the park was very quiet. The only person she could see was a smartly dressed middle-aged man, fast asleep on a bench.

_He's asleep. There's no one else around. This is perfect._

She slowly walked towards him.

_He'll never even realise-_

As fate would have it, she hadn't taken note of the slightly uneven paving. The next thing she knew, she was flat on her face.

Just then, the man on the bench woke up. As she stood up, he noticed a tall, long-legged brunette, flat on her face on the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She stood up, her head bowed. When she looked up at him, he could only stare at her glowing red eyes and the sharp, white fangs that protruded from her mouth.

Sara launched herself at him, and mentally sighed in contentment when she bit into his neck…

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

After a while, she withdrew her fangs and allowed the man to drop to the ground, unconscious. She saw him glow for a brief moment, but then the glow disappeared.

"Now, when he wakes up, he won't remember anything about you."

"Catherine!" Sara spun round and flong her arms around the older woman.

"If you would clear up after yourself, it would be a lot easier!" Catherine rolled her eyes.

"Do you want to-"

"No, I'm fine," Catherine grabbed Sara's hand, "I'm coming over for breakfast."

"Knowing Heather and Sophia, they'll have invited themselves over, too."

"Let's get going," Catherine dragged Sara in the direction of their cars.

Grissom, hidden behind a nearby tree, was trying to process everything he'd just seen, or, for the most part, heard.

Sara with her arms around a middle-aged business man? Catherine and Sara talking about Lady Heather and Sophia like they were friends with them? Catherine and Sara holding hands?

What was going on?

* * *

Review please! The nice ones make me smile, and encourage me to write more =]


	2. My preferences are so embarrassing

I got nice reviews...nice reviews=more story, so here you go.

Don't worry guys...Heather and Sophia may be in this story, but they're a lot nicer...and neither of them is interested in Grissom...and Heather proves to be rather helpful in this chapter.

Inspiration and some lines are taken from episode 2 of Karin, which just so happens to have the exact same name as this chapter! Actually, reading over it now, there's even a reference to the opening at the beginning of every episode of the anime.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Karin or CSI...but Anju's all mine, so I'm taking her home *takes Anju home against her will*

* * *

Just as Sara and Catherine reached Sara's front door, they noticed it was slightly ajar.

"Wha-?! I locked it!" Sara pushed the door open further, only to find Heather and Sophia sitting on the couch, not looking in the least bit impressed.

"We were expecting breakfast, Sara," Heather frowned.

"I was…otherwise occupied, and Catherine was helping me out-ow!"

Heather playfully whacked her around the head with a slipper. "Honestly, Sara," she sighed, "You really have to learn how to clear up after yourself.

"But I can't" Sara pouted, "I don't know why, but I just can't."

"Sara…breakfast…"

"Coming right up!"

Sara had first found out about Catherine being a vampire when she went over to her house to review some case notes. It was there that she found her snacking on raw meat, and then Sara contributed to the awkward moment by having a severe nosebleed. Despite all that, Catherine and Sara had gradually become a lot closer, with Catherine (and occasionally Heather) helping Sara out everytime she needed to bite someone.

Sophia had caught Sara in the act of biting someone one night, but just as Catherine was about to erase her memory, Heather told her to stop. She believed it would be better if they had at least one human who knew about them, and with Sophia being a cop, she could easily help them should anything pointing to vampires come up in an investigation. The least any of them wanted was for _everyone_ to know about their existence.

However, unlike Catherine and Heather, Sara was not a normal vampire, in that, she didn't suck blood. Rather, she was a blood-sucker whose blood would increase. Except not. She was a blood-maker, and her blood increased at around the same time each month. So, when she bit someone, she didn't drink their blood, she injected her excess blood, but if she didn't do it in time, the blood came out in the form of nosebleeds, hence the situation in Catherine's kitchen.

A couple of hundred years ago, people like Sara would have been looked down on as failures, due to the fact that blood-makers were practically human. But now, she was practically royalty amongst vampires.

They were soon sitting down to croissants with jam and breakfast muffins.

"So, Catherine, when's the last time you actually bit someone?" asked Sophia, taking a bite out of her croissant.

Catherine looked down at her plate. "Never," she admitted.

The other three gawped at her.

"You've never bitten anyone?!" Sara exclaimed.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I just haven't," Catherine continued to avoid their gazes, "For some reason, I've never had the urge to bite a human, so that's why I stick to partially raw meat if I need blood."

When they'd finished, Sara gathered up the plates.

"Aren't any of you going to help me?" she asked.

"No," they replied bluntly.

"So, I hear that Grissom makes Sara's blood increase," Heather remarked once Sara was out of earshot.

"Yep," Catherine turned to her, "You think…?"

"Yes, I do."

"Er, Sophia Curtis, human being, still here," Sophia piped up.

"Oh, you don't know," Heather smiled at her, "Well, you see, we vampires don't bite just anyone…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

There was a knock on the door.

Sara groaned, because answering the door meant actually moving off the couch.

Catherine, Sophia and Heather had been having a conversation about something, but when she came back, they immediately started talking about the weather. A tell-tale sign that they were talking about her.

They'd left soon after, and Sara had fallen asleep where she was. Well, she'd been asleep until her rude awakening.

"Heather? What are you doing here?" Sara opened the door.

"Shower and put some fresh clothes on, we're going out," Heather walked in and sat down on the couch.

"Why?"

"I'm here to find out what your taste in blood is."

"Taste in…blood?"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

"You probably think that all male vampires are perverts that prey on women, don't you?"

Sara cocked her head slightly. "They're not?"

Heather sighed. "Well, I suppose it's half-accurate."

Sara sipped her coffee. "Well, no problem then."

"But there's still the other half which concerns a vampire's taste in blood."

"Taste in blood?"

They were sat in a coffee shop near to Sara's apartment, talking in low voices to avoid being overheard by anyone.

"Catherine likes the blood of people who are stressed. In my case, it's hostility."

"Oh, really…"

"Have you, by any chance, noticed any change in Jim's behaviour?"

"Well, he's been more happy and a lot nicer to suspects on cases…" Sara's voice trailed off as she realised that Heather had just referred to Brass by his first name. "Why did you just…no way!"

Heather just smiled at her.

"Everytime a man seems happier, it's usually a woman," grinned Sara, "So, what about his behaviour?"

"You said yourself that he's been nicer to suspects. That's because I started sucking his blood."

"So, when you suck someone's blood, you also suck their hostility?"

"Something like that."

"So sucking blood is actually like a good deed? I thought it was just to satisfy hunger."

Sara noticed Heather gazing out of the window, so she followed her gaze.

"We vampires become attracted to those with blood that's our taste," Heather explained, "It happens by instinct."

She turned back to Sara. "I didn't think that a blood-maker like you whose blood increases would still have the same instinct."

Sara stared at her as she leaned back in her seat. "Which means that…"

"Seems like Grissom has a strong case of whatever type of blood your taste is."

"Grissom is my…type?!" Sara blushed bright red at the prospect, only to come into contact with Heather's ever-present slipper.

"Stop being embarrassed and go find out what type of blood attracts you!"

Once they were outside the coffee shop, they started walking in the opposite direction to Sara's flat.

"If you don't figure out your taste, you won't be able to face Grissom."

"That's easy for you to say," Sara scowled.

As they were walking along, they saw a shy-looking, pretty young woman standing by the edge of the sidewalk, near to the road.

_Thud._

Sara's breathing suddenly became heavier.

"That woman?" asked Heather.

Sara nodded.

A car was coming along the road, and the woman seemed to itch closer to the edge.

"Something about her doesn't look right," murmured Sara.

Just as the car was about to go past, the woman stepped forward, only to be stopped by Sara's hand grabbing hold of her wrist.

"You shouldn't kill yourself!"

The woman smiled gently. "Me? Oh, my. Did I look like I was going to? I didn't intend to…I was…I was…" The woman raised her hands to her face and burst into tears.

Sara suddenly began to panic. "What's wrong?"

"What'd you make her cry for?" Heather joked.

Heather put her arm around the woman's shoulders and walked her back to the coffee shop, with Sara in tow.

Once they were sat down with some fresh coffee, the woman, whose name was Anna, began to apologise.

"I-I'm terribly sorry. I got caught up in my own thoughts…"

"Not at all, don't worry about it," Heather smiled sympathetically, "More importantly, if you're troubled, why don't you tell us about it?"

Sara raised an eyebrow at Heather, who was sat next to her. _What's she so happy about?_

"No…well…it's rather shameful, but…the truth is that today, at work…"

"_Aaaah!" Anna screamed, "What are you doing, Mr Riddell?"_

"_Should you really be saying that?" her manager looked at her, hungrily, "If you just do as I say, your salary will be raised accordingly."_

"_No!"_

_However, in her attempt to push him away, she accidently caught the PA button._

"_Come on, it's not like you're losing anything," the manager's voice rang out through the entire supermarket._

"_No! Stop!"_

"_Ever since the first day you showed up here…Anna!"_

_Another employee rushed into the room, only to catch the two of them in a compromising position._

"_What are you doing, Mr Riddell?!" he asked, shocked, "You're being broadcast through the entire store!"_

"I see," Heather took another sip of her coffee, "In any case, that manager cannot be forgiven. An enemy to all women."

Sara stared at her in disbelief. _Why is she being so nice to this woman?_

"The managers and bosses where I work are always kind to me in the beginning," Anna avoided their eyes, "But for some reason, after a period of time, they begin trying to get intimate. Once they learn I'm not interested, they start causing trouble for me, and all my female co-workers treat me coldly…none of my jobs ever work out."

_I see,_ thought Heather, _an attractive woman who plagues middle-aged men._

Sara bit her lip. _I really hope that responding to her doesn't put me on the same level as those middle-aged men…_

"But what should I do now?" Anna's voice snapped them both out of their thoughts, "My son and I were finally able to begin a new life here…if only I received a regular salary, I could feed him better…how can I possibly face him?"

_Thud._

Sara's hand flew automatically to her nose.

"Sara?" whispered Heather.

"It suddenly started," Sara whispered back, "What do I do?"

Heather smiled. "Just bite her."

"B-But…"

"I'll clean it up for you, so don't worry and just do it."

"B-But…"

"By the way, I'd like to hear more," Heather said to Anna, "So why don't we move somewhere else?"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

They found themselves at the park again, with Heather and Sara leading Anna further in.

"It feels like we're heading into an isolated area," Anna commented, looking towards Sara and Heather, who were walking ahead of her.

"Is this really okay?" Sara said to Heather, "I'm kind of scared."

"Is this really the time to be saying that?" Heather asked her, "Your body's probably at its limit. Just let your instincts take over and bite her. That's how we vampires do it."

Sara looked back at Anna, and she felt her fangs start to elongate, and her body gradually got hotter. Her breathing got heavier.

As they walked into a clearing in the park, Sara finally said, "I…I can't take it anymore!"

She turned and ran to Anna, taking hold of her shoulders.

"I'm sorry…I can't hold back any longer!"

"E-Excuse me?" Anna's eyes widened in fear as she she saw Sara's fangs descending onto her neck…

Grissom was taking a walk in the park. He found that it helped him to keep a clear head, and he was able to get away from the noise of the centre of the city.

As he walked towards the steps which descended into a clearing, he stopped and stared.

Sara…her arms around a woman's neck…her mouth pressed to her throat…and they had company…

_Lady Heather?!_

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

"That was close," Heather said to a now unconscious Sara, whom she was holding in her arms as they walked back to her apartment.

"But there's no doubt about what attracts you to a person's blood…it's their hopeless feeling of unhappiness."

She affectionately brushed a stray strand of hair from Sara's face. "Wow, bringing happiness to complete strangers," she whispered, "You really are different…"

* * *

You see, they're nicer in my story =] Reviews please! Remember, nice reviews=more story...or Heather will show you divine punishment with her slipper...LOL


	3. Happiness is so embarrassing

And because nice reviews=more story, more of the story was posted...

In case people are wondering why Heather is wielding a slipper, in Karin, Karin's mother uses it to keep Karin and her father in line, and for some reason, I decided to give Heather a slipper too!

Some inspiration and lines are taken from episode 4 of Karin.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin. However, I am taking Anju home, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

* * *

**Happiness is so embarassing**

"Hey," Heather answered Sara's front door.

"You called us back here again," Sophia came through the door with Catherine in tow, "What gives?"

"I know now what Sara's taste in blood is," Heather closed the door.

"Do tell," Catherine said as she sat down on the couch, "What is Sara attracted to?"

"Unhappiness."

"Why?" moaned Sara, "I wanted something more poetic than…unhappiness!"

"Actually it's a good thing," Catherine pointed out, "Everytime you bite someone, you take away their unhappiness. You make people happy."

"And there are plenty of unhappy people in the world," Sophia continued, "You can just bite whoever's standing around."

"Catherine, will you help me at work so I don't bite unhappy people in full view of everyone?" asked Sara.

"Of course."

Unfortunately, Catherine didn't see Heather's slipper flying in her direction until it hit her in the face.

"Stop doting on her like a mother, Catherine!" Heather turned to Sara, "The two of you aren't always going to be together at the lab. You need to learn to deal with it yourself."

"Yes, mother."

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

_So my taste is unhappiness, huh?_

_Wait, that means…Grissom is unhappy._

Sara sighed deeply.

_Not good. Just thinking about him makes my blood…but if I don't think about him…_

_Okay, then,_ Sara smiled as she closed her locker, _I just have to avoid Grissom, then I'll be okay._

Thirty minutes later, she sat next to the object of her affections on the way to a crime scene, ready to cry. _How could I have forgotten that, not only do we work at the same place on the same shift, but that he always pairs us together anyway?_

"Sara, I need to talk to you about something," Grissom looked serious.

"Yes," she answered.

"I've seen you the last couple of nights…in the park…"

Sara was sure her heart actually stopped beating. _He saw me…he knows my secret…he knows everything…_

"I want you to stop doing that stuff."

"Erm…er…" _It's not exactly something I can stop doing…_

"Please, Sara, I hate seeing you being used by people."

She frowned at him. Used by people? What was he talking about?

"Some people…they'll take any beautiful young woman they can find…"

_What does he…does he think that I'm being forced into…_

He didn't know after all. He obviously hadn't seen her biting anybody, but instead, he'd taken it completely the wrong way.

_And he called me young and beautiful…_

She noticed that they'd arrived at the crime scene, so as she reached for the door handle, she turned to him.

"Grissom, I promise you, it's not anything like that…I'll explain, but not right now…it's just really complicated…"

Once they'd processed the scene and returned to the lab, Grissom noticed that Sara wasn't looking well at all.

"Sara, are you feeling okay?"

"Really, I'm fine-" Sara clutched her chest and started breathing heavily. "You know, maybe I should go home…take some medicine, get some rest…" she practically staggered out of the layout room.

She was soon heading out of the building and making a beeline for her car, when she spotted Catherine.

"Sara! Where are you going?"

"Away from here. Grissom's seen me the past two nights."

Catherine stared at her in disbelief. "W-What?"

"But he didn't actually see me biting anyone. Instead, I think he's convinced that I'm being forced into prostitution or something!"

"You're not serious!"

"I am! You should have heard the way he said it!"

"At least I'm not the only one with problems. Grissom stuck me with a B&E!"

_Thud._

Sara's eyes widened. _Didn't we discuss how none of us were going to be unhappy around me?_

"Can you believe it, Sara? Does he seriously think that-"

Those were the last words Catherine got out before Sara pinned her against a Denali and sunk her fangs into her neck.

Grissom was walking down the corridor, looking through his case notes. As he looked outside towards the parking lot, his eyes practically popped out of his head.

Sara…her arms around Catherine's neck…her mouth pressed to her throat…and Catherine didn't seem to mind…

What was going on?

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Sara hadn't meant for anything to happen with Catherine, it just had. She knew she shouldn't have been so happy in front of Sara, so technically, it was Catherine's fault.

She went home to try and get some sleep, but remembered that, not being human, she didn't need to sleep every night.

She soon found herself back in her old haunt-the park. Her body felt hotter than it had done in a while, which was strange because it was only a short while ago that…

She caught sight of a woman walking in amongst the trees, all alone. She sent a message to Catherine: _At park. Need help._

"I have a family?!" The woman was talking to herself out loud, "He was just playing with me all along!"

She walked up to the woman, put a hand on her shoulder, turned her round and bit her.

_I hope Catherine gets here soon…_

"Sara."

She knew that voice, and it certainly didn't belong to Catherine.

Her eyes flew open and connected with a pair of piercing blue eyes which, again, didn't belong to Catherine.

She let the woman drop to the ground and continued to stare at Grissom, open-mouthed, while Grissom, in turn, stared at her. In particular, her mouth.

"You're a…" he couldn't say the word, "Then all that was…" he thought about the times he'd seen her with her mouth pressed against someone's neck, and the pieces slowly came together, "…so that's what it was."

"Grissom…" Sara quickly put her hands to her mouth.

_He saw me…he saw me bite someone!_

_I'll lose it all…everyone's worked so hard to protect…my…my…_

Grissom stepped forward, removed her hands from her mouth and stared in disbelief.

"Fangs…" Grissom still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Don't look!" Sara broke out of his grasp.

_He saw it…he saw it all…he saw me biting…and my fangs…and everything!_

"Sara," he grabbed hold of her wrist as she tried to pull away.

"Catherine!" she yelled, "Erase it! You're there, aren't you?! Hey, Catherine! Hurry! Hurry up and erase it! Erase Grissom's memory!"

Catherine was hiding up a tree right behind the two of them. Sara may have been calling her, but she wasn't going to fulfill her request. She had a theory, and she was pretty sure it was worth testing…

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Sara," Grissom held on to her wrist tightly, "But could you please stop trying to run away?"

She dropped to the ground on her hands and knees as he let go of her wrist. Then she did something rather unexpected. She put her face in her hands and began to cry.

He got down on his knees beside her, not caring what damage he might do to them, and pulled her into his arms. She gladly welcomed the comfort, and he held her as she wept.

A couple of minutes later, her sobs subsided.

"Are you okay now?" he asked her gently.

She looked up at him with tears still running down her face, her mascara slightly smudged. "Yes," she replied.

"Sara, you're a vampire, aren't you?"

She nodded.

"I see."

"Please, don't tell anyone," she begged him, "If people find out what I am, I won't be able to stay in this city anymore."

_If that happens…I won't be able to face Catherine, who always helps me when my blood increases…or Heather and Sophia who have backed me up all this time…_

"I couldn't live with myself," she sniffed.

"Come on, stand up," Grissom took her hand and helped her to her feet.

"Sara," he began, "Do I look like someone who would give away someone else's secret for no reason?"

"But it disgusts you, doesn't it?" Sara looked at the ground, "A monster like me…you want to chase me out of the city or exterminate me, right?"

"No, I don't!" Grissom grabbed her shoulders firmly, "Don't look down on me! I would never do that crap! No matter what kind of human or monster you are, anyone who tries to take away your home is scum! Don't put me on the same level as those people!"

"Grissom…you don't hate me…" Sara stared at him in awe.

"That's not actually why I wanted to know if you were one…"

The woman that Sara had bitten suddenly began to stir. Sara's eyes widened. She pushed Grissom behind a bush, and then dived after him.

She ended up pinning him down to the ground with one hand over his mouth. "Stay quiet," she told him.

Grissom saw the woman basked in a strange golden glow, which soon disappeared. "Why am I here?" she asked herself as she got up, "Oh, well, forget that. Time to find myself another guy!"

Grissom stared after the woman in astonishment. _She's perfectly fine. _He remembered that all the other people Sara had bitten had returned to a cheerful, energetic state afterwards.

_Which means that if a vampire sucks your blood…_

Suddenly, a certain blonde, who had been responsible for erasing the woman's memory, fell down on top of Grissom and Sara, unconscious.

"Catherine?!" They yelled simultaneously.

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

"So, Catherine's a vampire too, huh?" Grissom and Sara were walking down the path, with a still-unconscious Catherine on Grissom's back.

"Yeah."

"She was the one who told me to come here."

Sara looked at him. "Catherine did?"

"I don't know why, though."

They carried on walking in silence for a while, when Grissom said, "Oh, that's right. Sara?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"A lot happened and it slipped my mind. About the people who you bite…"

His voice trailed off as they saw what looked like a dark cloud in front of them, causing them both to stop. Suddenly, it grew, and Sara realised what it was. It was a cloud, but not a normal one.

_Heather's familiars…_

The bats parted and, sure enough, there stood Heather.

"Looks as though Catherine pushed herself too hard." The bats swarmed around them and, instantly, Catherine was on Heather's back.

"I didn't want to have to do this, Grissom, but considering everything you've seen, you leave me with no choice."

Heather's glowing hand stretched out towards Grissom…

A hand came in front of Heather's.

"Stop."

The three of them looked at Catherine.

"Catherine? What are you-"

"Don't erase his memory, Heather."

"But he-"

"Please don't. I'll explain this later."

"Very well."

Heather turned and walked towards the parking lot, Catherine still clinging on to her shoulders.

Grissom wondered how Heather was managing to carry Catherine on her back as though she wasn't actually there, but then remembered the way that Sara had pinned him to the ground earlier on with seemingly little difficulty, and figured it was probably a trait of being a vampire.

Realising that her ride home was leaving her behind, Sara ran after them.

"I'm sorry, Grissom, I promise, I will explain!" Sara called out over her shoulder.

* * *

Yeah, I know he found out early on, but so did Usui...besides, I kinda thought it was the right time. Now, review time! But if Heather hears that anyone's been mean...


	4. Human allies are so embarrassing

*faints from overwhelming happiness* Yay, nice reviews! We didn't get any nasty ones, did we, Heather? *Heather shakes head* You see, I've made Heather my personal slave. Her job is to defend me from reviewers who post a review just to tell me how much my story sucks. So beware, she's watching you...

In this chapter, we find out what Grissom wanted to ask Sara, why Catherine didn't want Heather to erase Grissom's memory, and also Grissom is seen in a place he wouldn't normally go to...

Some inspiration and lines are taken from episode 5 of Karin.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin. *sees Anju* Anju, Onee-chan's gonna take you home! *takes Anju home forcefully*

* * *

Sara, Catherine, Heather and Sophia were sat round Sara's coffee table.

"Are you okay, Catherine?" asked Sara.

"Mmmm."

"Then, could you explain what happened today?"

"I've been keeping a close eye on Grissom," Catherine began, "I've been using my familiars to observe him, day and night, so my conscious was still awake when my body was asleep, so I've been quite sleep-deprived. If I relax for a moment," Catherine slumped forward, only sitting upright again when prodded by Sophia, "I space out and fall asleep."

"Honestly, Catherine," Heather sighed, "You shouldn't push yourself that much. You won't be able to do your job if you keep falling asleep everytime you let your concentration lapse."

"It can't be helped. Still, Grissom kept his suspicions about Sara to himself. He said he wouldn't tell anyone about her when he found out, just like I thought he would. He found out about us, but seemed to accept it, unlike many other people who might not have done. He said he'd never try to drive us out, like many have done to vampires in the past."

"Er, Catherine, what's your point?"

"Sara reacts to his blood, so she can't avoid Grissom. That's why it would be better if we made him our ally."

"Seriously?!" the other three gawped at her.

"Catherine, what do you mean?" Sara asked.

"If your blood increased at a crime scene, for example, and I wasn't there, who would help you?"

Sara sighed. Catherine had a point, and besides, she knew that Grissom wouldn't tell anyone about her secret. But…

"Guys, my blood is increasing _because_ of Grissom!" Sara pointed out.

"So? Just bite him!"

"Heather, it's not that–"

"Maybe he'd be a good partner, Sara," Catherine giggled.

"Catherine! Sophia, aren't you going to stand up for me?"

"I am merely human; I'm not taking part in this conversation," Sophia replied.

"That's not fair!"

Catherine caught Sara yawning. "You're tired?"

"Well, my blood has been increasing a lot over the past few days, and it does take a lot out of me."

"We should probably leave you to your beauty sleep, then."

Once the three of them were outside Sara's door, Catherine asked, "So, Heather, are we going to make Grissom an ally?"

"Well…"

"Heather, he said himself that he's not the kind of guy who would give away someone's secret on purpose."

"It's not that I doubt him, I just think it would be better if we talked to him in person…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

_It's a good thing Grissom assigned us to separate cases tonight,_ Sara thought as she walked down the hallway, _After what happened earlier on, it'd be hard to face him._

Not looking where she was going, as she rounded the corner, who should she bump into, but Grissom.

They looked at each other for a moment, then looked away as the moment got awkward.

_Grissom's probably feeling the same way…_

"Sorry, Griss," she moved around him and carried on walking.

"Sara?" Grissom called after her.

She stopped, but didn't turn around.

"I need to talk to you after shift."

"Sure."

As she continued down the corridor, she sighed deeply.

_I suppose I have to talk to him._

_Grissom knows my secret now._

_I can't cover it up any longer._

Later on, after shift, Grissom was waiting outside by Sara's car. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the approaching footsteps.

Feeling as though someone was watching him, he turned around, only to come face-to-face with…

"Heather?"

She smiled. "Grissom, fancy meeting you here."

"What-"

"We just need to have a little talk, no worries…"

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Sara rushed outside, only to find that Grissom wasn't there.

_That's strange, he was the one who wanted to talk to me..._

_Where could he be?_

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Grissom found himself sitting on a couch he remembered sitting on a few years ago, when Sara had poured her heart out to him after Ecklie had suspended her. In front of him sat Catherine, Heather and Sophia, and if he was honest with himself, he'd never been more scared in his life.

"You don't need to be so tense, Grissom," smiled Sophia, "You're not the only human in here!"

As soon as she said that, she was treated to a whack across the back of the head with Heather's slipper.

"Don't be so perky, Sophia," Heather scolded.

"But she's right, Heather," Catherine turned to Grissom, "We just want to have a talk with the person who discovered our secret…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Sara had been in her car for twenty minutes, waiting for Grissom to show. She decided he must have forgotten, so she drove out of the parking space and headed home.

Once she was there, she discovered that the door to her apartment was ajar. Assuming that the others had let themselves in again, she pushed the door open further.

But when she saw who was in her apartment, she nearly died.

"What is Grissom doing here?!" Sara noticed that everyone seemed to look in the direction of one person. "Heather! Why did you kidnap him?"

"Come in, sit down, and stop worrying," Heather smiled, "We were just talking to him. Is that a crime?"

_So now I need to be invited into my own home…_

Sara closed the door, walked over to the couch and sat down next to Grissom. "What did you tell him?"

"Nothing. Yet."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"Are you afraid that we tortured him or something?"

"Well, with you having been a dominatrix and all…"

_What will happen if I disobey them?_

Grissom decided to be brave.

"Sara…"

Everyone turned to look at Grissom.

"I noticed that all the people you've bitten seem to be more cheerful and energetic afterwards, and I was wondering if something happened because their blood was sucked."

Catherine, Sophia and Heather smiled at each other knowingly, whilst Sara hung her head.

"You seem to be misunderstanding something," Catherine told him.

"I don't suck blood," Sara muttered.

Grissom frowned. "Then what-"

"Once a month my blood increases, and if I don't get rid of the blood in time, it comes out in nosebleeds. So when I bite someone, I don't drink their blood, I inject my excess blood."

Grissom sat in thought for a minute, then he spoke. "The three of you should be weak to garlic, crosses and sunlight. And a stake through the heart should be fatal."

Catherine's face was painted in mock shock. "A stake through the heart?! How barbaric!"

"That would kill anyone," Sara pointed out.

_She has a point…_

"Crosses don't affect vampires," Sara began, "The only reason lots of vampires don't like garlic is because we have more acute senses than humans and, though sunlight isn't fatal, it can make us feel drained of our energy quite quickly."

"Basically, human legends aren't accurate," smiled Sophia.

"Still…is it alright for you to randomly give blood?" Grissom asked Sara, "Aren't there issues with things like blood types?"

"Vampire blood is exclusive of human blood types," Sara explained.

"It's not like sucking someone's blood turns them into zombies or whatever crap modern day movies have made people believe," Heather added, "Rather, it does things like eliminate their stress or make them unable to lie."

"But the people that Sara bites…"

Sara suddenly realised her dilemma. Her taste was unhappiness. She reacted to Grissom, which meant he was unhappy. If she told him what her taste in blood was, and that she reacted to him, she didn't know what he'd do.

"In Sara's case, it's different."

Grissom looked at Sophia. "What do you-"

"You said yourself that all the people Sara has bitten have become cheerful and full of energy. It's like those people have gained the power to become the person they desire to be."

_Sophia saved me from answering…_

"Are you done asking questions?" Heather was suddenly sitting on the arm of the couch next to Grissom.

"Heather," Sara scowled at her.

"You've learnt our true identity. You'll need to take responsibility."

"Responsibility?" Grissom raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Heather leaned in closer, "If you let our secret slip, we'll have to erase all your memories."

"All of them?"

"Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to exclusively erase memories pertaining to vampires," Heather leaned in to whisper in his ear, "We'd have to make your mind blank."

"What?!" He pulled right away from her.

"You wouldn't want to have to be taken care of for the rest of your life, would you?"

"Heather, stop scaring him!" Sara frowned, "Just don't tell anyone, Grissom, I doubt she's joking!"

"You're trembling, Grissom!" Heather ruffled his hair, "We won't do anything as long as you keep our secret, so no worries."

"Heather, stop ruffling his hair!"

"Fine," Heather removed her hand, "It's not like it was a romantic gesture or anything!"

"Well, Heather," Catherine grinned, "He did tell Sara…"

"'Don't look down on me! I would never do that crap!'" quoted Heather, "After saying that, there shouldn't be any problems."

"Please forgive Heather's slightly insane temprament," Sara whispered to Grissom, "Unfortunately, this is what she's always like."

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

"Hey, Sara, Heather's dragging us along to a club that she knows later on. You're free tonight, right? Wanna join us?" asked Catherine as they gathered their things from their lockers at the end of shift.

"Sure, I'm not tired, I'll go," Sara closed the door of her locker.

_But what will I wear?_

Back at her apartment, Sara ransacked her wardrobe, trying to find something suitable for a club.

_When was the last time I actually went to a club, not on a case?_

_Oh yeah, college._

_And why is that again?_

_Oh yeah, my job doesn't enable me to have much of a social life._

Sara sighed in despair.

This wasn't going to be an easy task.

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

"I told Sara where to meet us…why isn't she here yet?" Catherine took a sip of her drink, then put it down on the table in front of her.

Heather looked up and her eyes widened. "Er, guys, she just walked in…"

Sophia and Catherine followed Heather's gaze, and stared in amazement.

Sara walked towards the table they were sitting at, wearing a black-and-gold sequin thick-striped tank top, very short black shorts, thigh high black platform boots and more make-up than she would normally wear. In simple terms, she looked like a completely different person.

"Wow," Catherine stared at her as she sat down, "Someone's looking to get some tonight."

Sara blushed.

Heather whacked her with her slipper. "Catherine, you really do have a dirty mind."

"You brought the slipper with you to a club?" Sophia was also subjected to Heather's form of judgement.

"Hey, Catherine, maybe you could 'snack' on some stresed-out businessman while you're here," Sara teased.

"No, I couldn't!" Catherine scowled at her, "I already told you, I don't need to bite humans!"

"Or maybe you're just saving yourself for Warrick…how far have you two-"

"It's not that kind of relationship!"

"Why don't I believe you?"

"You should!"

"Can't you just imagine how it would feel to sink your fangs into his jugular and-"

"Sara!"

"Hate to cut into this incredibly mature conversation, but does anybody know what Grissom's doing here?" asked Sophia.

Sara nearly fell off her chair. "WHAT?!"

"Look behind you."

She turned round and, sure enough, Grissom was heading towards the restrooms.

"Go after him!"

"Heather!" She spun round and gave her a warning look.

"Go find someplace to work out that famous tension of yours!"

"Sophia!"

"It's not like I told him we were gonna be here!"

"CATHERINE YOU'RE DEAD!!"

"Just go after him," urged Heather, "Tell him how you feel…"

_The three of you _so _owe me…especially Catherine…_

* * *

Hmmm, what shall happen next...I already know...and because nice reviews=more story, hopefully you'll find out soon...oh, and I do have Heather on standby, just in case she's needed to use the slipper or wipe someone's memory...but you're all lovely people, so hopefully there should be no problems ;]


	5. Love Confessions are so embarrassing

Well, you can probably tell from the title of this chapter what will happen...but other stuff happens too...and there's even a twist at the end...but I won't spoil it for you, so get reading!

I somehow managed to get a Twilight reference in this chapter...and for those of you who have read _Pregnancy and Confusion_, you may be reminded of it at some point...

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own CSI or Karin, but Anju is all mine! I shall take her home, dress her up in Goth Loli outfits, buy her lots of dolls and soft toys and...aaah she's just so cuuute! Omichikaeri, omochikaeri, omochikaeri, omochikaeri, omochikaeri...

* * *

"Grissom?"

Grissom turned round to find Sara standing in front of him. Well, due to the height of her heeled boots, she was practically standing over him by an inch or two.

"Oh…Sara…"

"What are you doing here?"

"Well…" _I'm only here because you are…_

"I…wanted to talk to you about…something…" _Oh crap! I didn't plan how I was gonna tell him…what do I do? Catherine…Sophia…Heather…you guys are the worst best friends ever!_

"What an incredible coincidence," Grissom took a step forward as she took a step back, "I needed to talk to you too."

They carried on beating around the bush, with her stepping backwards and him stepping forwards, until Sara felt her back pressed up against the wall. Grissom closed the distance between them and allowed his hands to rest on her hips.

_Oh crap, oh crap, how am I supposed to talk to him when he's so close like this…come to think of it, my blood's not increasing…does this mean he's happy?_

_Happy because of me? I sure hope so._

"Grissom, there's something I need to say to you, because I don't think I've ever made it clear."

_Why am I being so forward…what if she says something like "You're a human, I'm a vampire, 'we' can't be?"_

"And what would that be?" he asked, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"I'm in love with you. Powerfully, painfully, in love," her fingers tangled themselves in his curls, "The things you do, the way you think, the way you move…I get excited every time I'm about to see you. You make me feel like I've never felt before in my life." Her hands dropped down to his shoulders. "I just thought you might want to know."

With that, she leaned forward slightly, and gently pressed her lips to his.

She'd meant for the kiss to be chaste and simple, but if she was honest with herself, she'd known all along that that wouldn't happen. Instead it became sweet and passionate, and made them long for each other even more than they already did.

Sara pulled away suddenly, gasping for air. She looked up to find Grissom staring at her, confused.

"I forgot to breathe," Sara blushed slightly.

"You need to breathe?"

"Er, yeah."

"But I thought…"

Sara had to smile at that. "I am alive, I'm just a different species."

_Thud._

Sara's hands flew to her nose.

_Oh no! My heart began to beat faster when I kissed him, so my blood increased…_

"Did your blood increase again?" Grissom asked.

"Yeah, but I'm fine." Sara gave him a wicked grin. "So, Dr Grissom, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "I wanted to tell you that I'm unconditionally, unequivocally and irrevocably in love with you."

Sara wanted to cry. That had to be the sweetest, most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her.

Grissom reached up and stroked her cheek with his hand. "You're so young and beautiful," he smiled.

"I'm not _that_ young."

"Oh, really?"

"I'm older than you."

Grissom's jaw dropped, and Sara burst out laughing.

"What did you expect? I'm a vampire!"

"Yes, but-"

"I guess it would be too much for you if I told you my actual age."

"Well…"

"I'm two hundred and fifty."

At that point, Sara nearly had to give him CPR to bring him back into the land of the living.

"And Catherine and Heather…"

"Neither of them know exactly how old they are. They tell me they got bored with their age, so they quit counting after two hundred."

Grissom still looked shell-shocked. "That's why our age difference has never bothered you."

"Yeah. I'm nearly two hundred years older than you, after all."

"You really do make me feel young."

Catherine burst through the doors that lead to the corridor with Sophia in tow. "Oh, so you two did find somewhere to work off that tension!"

"Catherine!" The two of them jumped about a mile apart.

"So, you two finally came up for air!"

"Heather?!" Sara stared at her as she emerged from the ladies' bathroom. "When did you get in there?"

"The two of you were…distracted when I came by." Grissom and Sara blushed furiously at that comment.

"So, were the two of you planning to head home for _coffee_?" grinned Sophia, greatly emphasising the 'coffee'.

"Oooo, coffee! I bet you'll enjoy having coffee together! Maybe _black_ coffee?" Catherine giggled.

"Catherine, stop embarrassing them!" Heather promptly whacked her round the head with her slipper.

"She brought that slipper to a club?!" Grissom asked.

"Yeah. Since she used to be a dominatrix, I like to think that the slipper replaced the whip!" Sara smiled, only to be treated to divine punishment herself.

"Don't think I didn't hear that, Sara Sidle!" Heather scowled at her, "Just for that, you're making tea for us!"

"She expects you to cook for us all?" Grissom looked confused.

"She does, frequently," Sara sighed, "Apparently, I'm a very good cook."

"You wouldn't know that, Grissom, because you only just decided to lift your head out of the microscope!" Catherine chipped in.

"Catherine!"

Pretty soon, the five of them were heading out towards the parking lot. At least, they thought the five of them were together. As Sara turned around to say something to Sophia, she discovered that she wasn't there.

"Hey, guys, where did Sophia go?"

"Help me!"

They all turned in the direction of Sophia's voice, and Catherine and Heather took off.

"Wait here," Sara told Grissom, and followed them.

She found Sophia in a headlock, courtesy of a rather hostile-looking guy. He had the build of a bouncer, but he certainly wasn't one and, for some reason, he looked terrified.

But when Heather turned to look at her with glowing red eyes, she understood why he'd be scared.

_Thud._

For the first time in a long time, Sara smiled when her blood increased.

"He's hostile and unhappy," Sara smiled at Heather, "I do believe we've hit the jackpot."

The two of them stepped forward, smiling at the man, who had now loosened his grip on Sophia enough for her to slip out of his grasp with ease.

Grissom heard someone cry out.

_What are they doing back there? I wonder if they're…actually, I should probably go and check up on them…_

He walked round to the back of the club where Catherine, Heather and Sara had gone to find Catherine erasing the memory of a man who was led on the ground.

"Grissom? I thought I told you to stay put!" Sara walked towards him.

"And I'm telling you to call me Gil," he replied.

"Nooo! I'm no longer special!" wailed Catherine.

"We got rid of all his unhappiness and hostility, _Gil_," smiled Sara.

"I'll tell Ecklie!"

"If you dare…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Once they had all returned to Sara's apartment, and Sara had cooked some food, they were all seated at the dinner table.

"What's for tea, Sara?" asked Catherine.

"Chicken fajitas, which means I'm having soy chicken. Oh, and Gil helped me make some shell noodles with Mexican filling." Sara put the food down on the table.

"What exactly is in these shell noodles, 'cause they don't look like noodles to me.

Sara began to recite the ingredients from memory. "Five hundred grams of oyster mushrooms, one clove of garlic, one onion, three tomatoes, six pickled green peppers, two tablespoons of butter, salt, freshly ground pepper, eighty grams of tomato ketchup, one tablespoon of chilli sauce, chilli powder, two hundred and fifty grams of large shell noodles, two hundred millilitres of vegetable stock, and eighty grams of cheese."

Everyone stared at her. Finally, Catherine spoke again. "You…memorised that recipe?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"For fun."

"Wow, you two really _are_ perfect for each other."

Sara scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that we're perfect for each other," Grissom pulled her down to sit next to him.

"So, has Grissom been keeping our secret, Sara?" Heater asked as thy ate.

"Heather, you threatened him yesterday! He hasn't exactly had much time to tell anyone, has he?"

"That's true…"

"How's Warrick, Catherine?"

Catherine's eyes went wide. "How would I know?"

Sara smirked. "Well, considering your relationship…"

"What relationship?!"

"Calm down, Gil," Sara patted his arm, "I'm just teasing her. Although, sometimes, I do have to wonder…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Catherine slumped down on the sofa, trying to forget about the smell of that man's blood. He'd been stressed, incredibly stressed. But she still hadn't had any of his blood.

After all these years, she was scared that her abstinence from blood would take a toll on her. After all, she had gone for over two hundred years without any. It could only be expected.

It was bad enough at work. All of those stressed out people drove her insane. Especially Warrick. Even if he wasn't stressed out, he always smelled so _good_, and just being near him was dangerous for both of them. Reacting to stress wasn't the good thing that the others seemed to turn it into.

In any case, she was glad Lindsey had turned out human. At least she'd never have to go through the same things Catherine herself was going through.

It was almost certain that all of this was going to happen at some point. If only she'd known just how soon it _would_ happen…

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Catherine could hear Sara humming to herself as she approached the locker room.

"Hey, Cath!" Sara smiled cheerfully at her as she entered.

"Did you and _Gil_ get up to anything?"

"No! Really, Catherine, you have such a perverted mind!" Sara turned to rummage through her locker. "I can't believe that Gil made me go solo on that ex-casino mogul's murder! High profile, tough case, preliminary hearing in a few days, and I have a horrible feeling that this guy's gonna walk…"

_Thud._

Oh no. Sara was stressed out. Not good. She was beginning to smell better and better by the second.

"Sara, could you please calm down?"

"Come on, Catherine, you've gotta let me vent a little-"

"Could you please stop acting like that?"

Sara turned and frowned at her. She didn't think she'd done anything wrong.

""What do you mean, Cath?"

"Just…" Catherine slammed her locker door, "Just stay away from me!"

Catherine darted out of the room, leaving Sara staring after her. She tried to come up with some explanation as to what had just happened, but all her brain could come up with was, _Huh?!_

She shut her locker door and headed towards the break room, where Catherine was sat at the table, alone. She decided to cheer her up.

"Catherine, I need to tell you something," Sara sat down opposite her.

Catherine's first instinct was to run away, but she realised that Sara would be more suspicious if she did.

"What?"

"I think I'm pregnant."

"Catherine's mouth dropped wide open. "But you told me that you hadn't…"

"And Ecklie's the father," Sara told her with a perfectly straight face.

"Okay, you've got to be freaking kidding me!"

"You're right, I lied."

"Well, the truth is, Sara, _I_ think _I'm_ pregnant."

Sara raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"

"And you're the father."

Sara smirked. "I'm not sure how that happened, but I promise I won't be a deadbeat dad…"

"Sara's the father of Catherine's baby?" Greg's voice shocked both women as he walked into the room.

"She was only joking, Greg."

"So does this mean that you're not carrying Ecklie's child?"

"Yeah-wait a minute, how long have you been eavesdropping on us?"

"Ever since you walked into the room."

"Greg!"

Once everyone was assembled in the break room, Grissom came to hand out assignments.

When Grissom put her and Warrick together, Catherine nearly slapped him. It was official. She wouldn't be able to concentrate for the entire shift.

"Sara, you're with me," Grissom and Sara bolted out of the room before anyone could say anything.

As they were on their way to the crime scene, Grissom noticed that Sara was being very quiet.

"Something wrong, Sara?"

"When I was talking with Catherine in the locker room, she suddenly told me to stay away from her."

"What did she mean by that?"

"No idea, but she cheered up when I told her that I was pregnant with Ecklie's baby."

Grissom stared at her, and Sara suddenly realised what she'd just said. "I was just joking, Gil!" she assured him, "She then told me she was pregnant with my child!"

"We've barely been together twenty four hours, and already you're having Ecklie's baby and you've, somehow, fathered Catherine's."

"Gil, you know I'd never cheat on you," she smiled, "It's just…I'm really worried about her…"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Catherine had been battling her instincts all night thanks to Warrick, but when a still stressed out Sara walked past, it was the last straw.

"Sara, I need to talk to you about something," Catherine grabbed Sara's arm and dragged her into her office.

"So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Sara asked once they were in Catherine's office. She heard Catherine lock the door and wondered at her need for privacy.

Suddenly, she found herself trapped as Catherine embraced her from behind.

"Catherine, wha-"

She felt a dull pain as sharp fangs pierced the skin on her neck.

_Catherine…she's…_

She'd never actually been bitten by a vampire before. It wasn't too dissimilar to when she'd given blood in college…well, the fifth time she'd posed as a college student. She'd actually lost count of the number of degrees she had as a result of that.

Eventually, Catherine released her. Sara turned round to look at Catherine, whose eyes were glowing red. Once they returned to normal, she immediately looked guilty.

"Sara, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-" Catherine keeled over and started breathing heavily.

"You need more…"

"No, I've already taken too much…"

Sara took a pen-knife out of her pocket and slashed her wrist open.

"Drink," Sara held her wrist up to Catherine's mouth, but Catherine pushed her away.

"Sara, please don't do this-"

Sara cut her wrist a second time. "I'll keep doing it unless you drink!"

Catherine took Sara's wrist and licked the wounds clean. "Don't ever harm yourself for my sake ever again," said Catherine, before promptly bursting into tears.

Sara hugged her as she cried, whilst rubbing soothing circles on her back. When Catherine's sobs quietened down, Sara wiped her tears away.

"We'd better get going," Sara smiled, "Everyone will be wondering where we are."

Sara took her hand and dragged her out of the office. Catherine smiled at her.

"Thanks, Sara, I know I can rely on you for anything." She pecked Sara on the cheek and walked off towards the layout room.

Sara headed to the break room, followed by the eyes of manu shocked lab techs. Then again, holding her hand, letting Catherine give her a peck on the cheek…she'd kind of dropped herself in it.

_Great_, she thought as she waited for the kettle to boil, _Not only do I have a thing for my boss, I also have an assumed relationship with Catherine. Just wonderful. Now Wendy will be too caught up in gossip to run that DNA sample…_

Grissom walked into the break room, looking dejected. "I see you really do have a thing with Catherine," he muttered upon seeing her.

"I don't, everyone just assumed that. All she did was peck me on the cheek!" Sara sat down with her coffee.

"This is what I've always been afraid of," Grissom sat down opposite her.

"You were afraid that me and Catherine would develop a relationship?"

"I was afraid I'd lose you to someone else once I had you."

Sara looked at him with wide eyes. "You were afraid to admit your feelings for me because you were afraid I'd leave you for someone else? Why?"

"Because I don't think I'm good enough for you."

_Thud_.

This was the last thing she needed right now. She couldn't leave the lab, and even if she could, Catherine was working a case and Heather was probably with a patient.

She had to make him happy.

"You're the most amazing man I've met in my life. I'm the one who's not good enough for you."

_Thud_.

_Oh great, I'm only making it worse._

"I meant what I said earlier. I'll never leave you," Sara said before bolting from the room.

Grissom went after her, and saw her go through the doors to the ladies' bathroom.

He'd never been into the women's bathroom. In fact, he'd never been into any women's bathrooms, but apparently they were supposed to smell nice.

As he pushed the door open, he gasped audibly.

The walls were cream in some places and red in others. It took him a while to realise that they were supposed to be completely cream. They were splattered with blood. The floor was covered in blood. In fact, it looked like a brutal crime scene, but instead of a dead body in the middle of it all, Sara was there, covering her nose with both hands and refusing to look at him.

Grissom got down on his knees in front of her. "Sara, what happened?" he asked gently.

"This…is what happens…when I don't bite someone in time…" She still refused to look at him.

"Sara, look at me." She reluctantly complied. "Is this why you don't feel good enough for me?"

She nodded. "It's just…really embarrassing…so…please…don't tell anyone…"

That was the last thing she remembered before everything went black.

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

When she woke up, she found herself lying on the couch in the break room with Grissom knelt by her side.

"The bathroom…"

"I cleaned it all up," he smiled, brushing a stray hair away from her face.

"Why did your blood increase?" he asked.

"Because you were unhappy."

He frowned, confused.

_Well, I guess I kinda knew I'd have to explain it to him at some point…_

"Vampires are attracted to those whose blood is their taste. For example, Catherine likes the blood of people who are stressed. Heather likes the blood of people who are hostile. For me, it's unhappiness."

Sara noticed that Grissom was now stood up and staring out of the door, so she too stood up and followed his gaze.

"Why does everyone look so relaxed?" Grissom noticed that everyone seemed a lot more relaxed whilst working than they had before.

"There's been a lot of high-profile cases lately, and everyone's been stressed out to some extent."

They turned to look at each other, thinking exactly the same thing. "Catherine."

"But why would she suck _everyone's_blood?" wondered Grissom.

"She drank my blood earlier on," Sara quietly admitted, "It was the first time she'd taken blood from anyone, so she took a lot. She insisted she was fine, but…maybe it wasn't enough…"

Just as her voice trailed off, who should walk in, but Catherine.

"Well, everyone seems to be a lot less stressed than they were earlier on," Sara smiled, "I wonder why that might be."

"I…er…"

"You told me you were fine—I shouldn't have listened to you."

"Sara, I didn't want to make you anaemic-"

"I'm a bloodmaker, Catherine!" Sara lowered her voice, "I don't really get anaemic!"

"Catherine, is there anyone you haven't bitten?" asked Grissom.

"Yes…"

"Who?"

"Warrick. He wasn't around at the time, so I couldn't have, even though I probably wouldn't even if he had been around."

"And why's that?" asked Sara.

"I don't know…"

"Sara," Wendy skipped into the room, "I have your DNA results. Open-and-shut case, like most B&Es are!" She skipped off again.

"Skipping, Catherine?" Sara raised an eyebrow at her, "Come on! Skipping?!"

**CSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSRCSIGSR**

Sara and Catherine pulled up to Sara's apartment building, after having made a stop at Pizza Hut. As to how Heather would react when she discovered that they'd got garlic bread, they didn't know.

"Hey, guys!" Catherine and Sara burst through Sara's front door, "We brought pizza!"

"You also brought garlic bread," Heather commented.

"It's good stuff!" Sara countered.

As they were tucking into pizza and garlic bread, Catherine started to laugh. "You know, we really don't have anything to worry about anything. Eating garlic bread like this…no one would ever suspect anything!"

"This garlic bread is pretty potent too! I could smell it from here when you guys were walking down the hall," Sophia commented.

When she realised everyone had fallen silent, she looked up from her pizza to find the other three staring at her with shocked faces.

"Did you really mean that, Sophia?" Sara asked slowly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because you shouldn't be able to."

"Guys, I don't get what the big deal is…"

"Here's the big deal, Sophia," said Heather, "Humans shouldn't be able to smell garlic, or hear footsteps, from that distance."

"Well, I guess it can only be expected…" Sophia's voice trailed off as she lowered her head.

"What do you mean, Sophia?" asked Catherine.

"There's something I've got to tell you…"

"What?"

"I'm not entirely human…"

* * *

And now...review...Heather is on standby...you have been warned...have a nice day!


	6. Sophia's secret is so embarrassing

I'm sooooo sorry I haven't updated. School work, amongst other things...but here you go, patient readers...

Despite the title, this chapter doesn't focus entirely on Sophia. In fact, there's quite a lot of GSR...to the YoBling! fans, fear not! I have decided that, next chapter, there will be more YoBling =]

Just to clarify, whenever you see _thud_ written somewhere, it means that the vampire in question is reacting to their taste in blood, and in Sara's case, it means that her blood's increasing. Just in case you weren't sure.

Oh, and by the way...Heather's slipper has a colour! But if you want to know the colour of the slipper, read on, because if you don't, you'll be finding out in an alternative way...you know what I mean...

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin. But regardless of what anyone might think, Anju's mine, I'm taking her home, and I shall dress her up in lots of Goth-Loli dresses and buy her stuffed animals...yes...

* * *

"What do you mean, you're not entirely human?" asked Sara.

"My mother is a vampire," Sophia began to explain, "But my father is human. As you already know, when a human and a vampire have a child, there's an even chance that the child could be either a human or a vampire. Even though nearly all of my traits are human, I can smell blood and, as I've just discovered, my senses are heightened."

"So…you never realised that your sense of smell was heightened before?"

"I thought that was how all humans smelt things. I've never known any different."

"So, Sophia, how old are you?" asked Heather.

Sophia concentrated on the floor. "Two hundred and thirty…"

The other three women gasped. "Two hundred and thirty?!" exclaimed Catherine, "So you have the same lifespan as a vampire too!"

"Yes. At first, my parents thought I was a late developer, but after I had my hundredth birthday, they decided that I was simply a long-living human."

"So…how many times have you gone through college?" asked Sara, trying to lighten the mood.

"Five, but then I got kinda bored…"

"Me too! But then I went back again around ten years ago 'cause I had nothing better to do with myself at that point, and-"

"It was then that you met Gil, got married, and lived with your two kids named Herbert and Ermentrude in a house with a white picket fence," Catherine finished.

Sara frowned. "I think I only remember the first part of that…"

Once the other three had left, Sara went to her bookshelf and brought out a large book which would, hopefully, tell her about people like Sophia.

She quickly flicked through the pages until she came across a page entitled: _**Offspring of a human and a vampire**_**.** She started to read:

_The offspring of a human and a vampire has an even chance of being a human or a vampire. If the child is a vampire, its natural instincts to protect will develop before it has been born, and as a result, it will protect itself and its mother even from inside the womb._

Sara already knew about this, so she skimmed down the page until one particular sentence caught her eye.

_Even though the offspring of a human and a vampire will have longevity, this is the only vampiric trait that they will inherit._

Sara stared at the sentence for a long time before the full meaning eventually hit her.

_Waaait…this means that Sophia shouldn't be able to smell blood…and her senses shouldn't be heightened…_

Did this mean that Sophia was, in fact, a late developer? A very late developer, at that? Sara had no idea.

A knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts. She went up to the door and looked through the peephole, and she nearly squealed in delight.

She opened the door, flung herself at the person standing outside and proceeded to launch a full blown attack on his lips.

After having pinned him to the wall for a good few minutes, Sara realised that both of them needed to breathe, so she pulled away and looked into the deep blue eyes that she adored so much.

"You seem very happy to see me," Grissom smiled at her.

"That's because I am happy to see you," she snuggled into his chest.

"Er, Sara, are we just going to stand out here, or…"

"No, no, come on in," she took his hand and lead him through her front door.

"I see you've had a lot of pizza," he commented as she shut the door.

"The terrible threesome just left and are so lazy that they didn't clear up after themselves," she sat down on the couch and held a slice of pizza out to him. "Veggie pizza?"

"Don't mind if I do," he sat down next to her and took the pizza from her hand.

As he took a bite, he looked at the open page of the book on the table and his eyes widened.

"Gil, it's not what you think," Sara reassured him. "Sophia told us that her mom's a vampire, but her dad's human."

"And, according to this book, she has longevity."

"Yeah, she's twenty years younger than me…"

_How can she say something like that so casually…_

"…but she shouldn't have heightened senses or the ability to smell blood, both of which she has."

"So, what are you thinking?"

"I think she might be an unusually late developing vampire, in which case, even Sophia herself might not know."

She curled up into his side and buried her head in his shoulder.

"Sara, have you ever been married?"

She looked up at him, surprised at his question. "No," she answered, "Before I met you, I'd never been in love with anyone else."

_I'm the only man she's ever loved…_

"But, surely, you must have had many men pining after you."

"Why?"

Grissom shifted her so that she was sitting sideways on his lap. "You're the most beautiful woman on this earth," he whispered.

"But-"

He silenced her with a chaste kiss. "I love you, Sara Sidle, and to have you love me back makes me the happiest man in the world."

"I'm not interested in anyone else; only you."

"Are you sure a handsome vampire isn't going to come and sweep you off your feet?"

To his surprise, Sara's face was a picture of disgust. "Er, not likely!"

"Really?"

"Well…let's just say that, when it comes to making an impression on females, male vampires aren't that great at leaving a _good_ impression."

"How so?"

"We females don't need to have any connection to our 'victims', in that we can just pick someone who we react to, take them somewhere quiet and bite them. But…most male vampires insist on sleeping with every woman they feed from. In short, most of them are perverts who prey on women."

"They don't sound all that different to a lot of human males."

Grissom picked up another piece of pizza, but Sara leaned forward and took a bite.

"You stole some of my pizza," Grissom faked a pout.

"Originally, it was mine, so I still retain ownership to a certain extent."

"That's not fair."

As she laughed at him, she realised that, right now, sitting on the couch, arguing over ownership of a piece of pizza with the man of her dreams, she'd never been happier in her life…

Sara sat in the locker room, trying not to dwell too much on the rather satisfying make-out session she'd just engaged in. The way he pushed her up against the car so suddenly, the way they'd…

_I can't be thinking about such things at work! Why does that man have to screw with my concentration?!_

After Catherine nearly gave the two of them away by laughing when Grissom paired himself with Sara, they headed out to the Denali.

As they climbed in, Sara leaned over and kissed him. He wasn't expecting it, but he didn't protest. He pulled her closer to him, tangling his fingers in her hair.

They kissed passionately, determinedly, licking, sucking, softly biting. For just a few moments, they completely forgot where they were.

Sara was the first to remember that they hadn't actually gone anywhere, and she pulled away suddenly and sat back down in her seat.

"We're at the lab, Gil, anyone could walk out here and see us!" Sara scowled at him.

"Miss Sidle, I do believe that you were the one who kissed me."

"If you weren't so irresistible, Dr Grissom, we'd be well on our way to that crime scene right now!"

They were about five minutes away from the scene when Sara covered her hands with her nose.

"Did your blood increase again?" asked Grissom.

_Well, it did earlier, but I didn't want to worry you…_

"No, it's just…you never told me we had a decomp."

"We don't."

"That's weird," Sara frowned, "I can smell decomp at our crime scene."

"Are you sure it's our crime scene?"

"Gil, I've lived with this nose for two-and-a-half centuries, trust me, it's at our crime scene."

Soon enough, they'd arrived, and they were walking into the house when Brass came out to greet them.

"Neighbour heard gunshots, came round, found the door open and these two like this," he nodded towards the two corpses lying on the floor in the hallway, face down.

_Strange,_ thought Sara, _Someone must have covered up the smell so that humans couldn't smell it…but not me…_

As Sara turned towards the living room, the stench hit her hard. Sophia came into the hallway from the living room, looking incredibly ill.

"You smell decomp, right, Sara?"

Grissom's eyes bugged out. _Why is she talking like that when Jim is here?_

"I could smell it when we were five minutes away!"

_What's going on?!_

"Er…Sara…Sophia…" Grissom looked towards Brass.

"It's okay, Grissom, I think he knows," Sara smiled.

"Why would he-"

"Oh, Sara, you don't have to call him Grissom, you know, Heather told me about that too," grinned Brass.

"Why would Heather-"

Sara and Sophia shot him a look simultaneously, and he instantly understood.

_Heather…and Jim? Wow…I'd never have guessed…_

"Where's the decomp smell coming from?" asked Grissom.

Sara went into the living room, following her nose. As she moved towards the couch, the smell got even stronger.

I think it's under the couch."

"Do you need any-" Grissom's mouth dropped open when Sara pushed the couch out of the way with no effort whatsoever. He still hadn't got used to some of the aspects of her being a vampire.

"It's definitely under these floorboards," Sara removed one of them, and promptly shot across to the other side of the room, trying to keep her food down. Sophia shot outside, and Brass and Grissom wrinkled their noses in disgust.

_Wow,_ thought Sara, _Now I don't have to hide my heightened sense of smell, I might be more useful at crime scenes…_

She looked at Sophia as she came back into the room. _She could smell the decomp…surely she'd tell me if she knew she was a vampire?_

_Well, I guess it's best to feign innocence…for now…_

They were more than certain that the wife's obsessed lover was the culprit. He'd killed the husband and the wife; their decomposing body turned out to be another man the wife was having an affair with, and they were pretty sure he'd killed him as well. Now all they had to do was get him to confess.

When she walked into the interrogation room, it took all Sophia had in her not to run out again. Why did this man smell so dangerously appetising? He smelt strongly of something…

Jealousy.

But…how could she possibly _smell_ jealousy? Surely that was impossible for her…

Both Sara and Grissom saw Sophia hesitate as they entered the room.

_If he killed them both,_ thought Sara, _he must still be jealous of the husband…and if she's reacting to him…_

During the interview, Sophia occasionally chipped in with a question to make it seem as though she was fully concentrating when, in fact, she was trying to think about anything but the _incredibly_ jealous man sat in front of her.

He'd obviously grown tired of their questions after a while, because he suddenly slammed his hands down on the table and yelled at them.

"Okay, I did it! I killed them! I found out she was seeing Carl, so I killed him and put him under the floorboards in their house. But then she wouldn't leave Tim, but she said she loved me, so I killed him too. But then she caught me and threatened to call the police, so I killed her. And I'd do it again! That slut wasted an entire year of my life!"

_**Thud.**_

Sara's hands flew to her nose, and Sophia gripped the edge of the table.

_Well, _this _is wonderful,_thought Grissom, _Sara needs to inject blood and Sophia…well, I have no idea…_

After the suspect was taken into custody, both women breathed a huge sigh of relief.

_Looks like I was definitely right about Sophia,_ thought Sara, _I need to tell Catherine and Heather about this…_

When Sara and Grissom got back to the lab, Sara found someone she knew in the break room.

"Heather!" Sara was pleasantly surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"Am I not allowed to come and keep you in line?" Sara knew Heather was referring to her red slipper.

As Sara sat down at the table, Heather looked at the people moving around the lab. "Everyone seems very relaxed," she commented.

"That's probably…" Sara's voice trailed off as a thought hit her. She'd never actually told Heather that Catherine was now drinking blood.

Whoops.

"It's probably what?"

"Er…I forgot to tell you…Catherine's…erm…she's…"

"She broke her fast?!" Heather's mouth dropped open.

_Okay…if that's how you want to put it…_

"Who broke their fast?" Catherine walked into the room.

"I hear that you've been biting people…Warrick too, maybe?"

Catherine went bright red. "N-n-no!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Catherine's face suddenly twisted into an evil grin, "Oh, and Sara, don't think Nick and I didn't see you in the car earlier!"

Sara's eyes bugged out. "You…and Nick…saw that?"

"Well, I erased Nick's memory. I thought you might want to tell everyone when you're ready."

_That's kinda sweet…_

"You know, you really shouldn't have stopped when you did! It was _so_ much better than the movies!"

_Musn't…harm…Heather's slipper…_

"So, you looking forward to the preliminary hearing?" Catherine asked.

Sara slammed her locker door shut. "No. Why did that douchebag have to go and get himself killed?"

_Thud._

Sara suddenly found herself pinned to the bench by Catherine, who was knelt over her.

"Honestly, Catherine, you've already fed off half the lab," Sara undid a few of the buttons on her blouse to give Catherine better access to her neck.

As Catherine drank, Sara was sure she could hear approaching footsteps, but then they died away, so she thought nothing more of it.

Catherine eventually pulled away, which was when Sara burst out laughing.

"What?" Catherine frowned.

"Nice bra, Catherine," Sara continued laughing.

Catherine looked down, and realised that all the buttons on her blouse had somehow come undone. She began to do them up, when she saw Sara's eyes get bigger and bigger. She looked behind her, only to find that Nick was stood in the doorway, gawping at them.

Catherine suddenly realised how it must have looked to him. Her knelt over Sara, both of them in a state of undress to a certain extent…

"This isn't exactly the most private place in the lab…" Nick's voice trailed off.

Sara and Catherine leapt off the bench simultaneously and started to rearrange themselves.

"It's not what you think, Nicky," Catherine mentally kicked herself for not controlling her instincts.

"No, really, guys, you don't have to hide it…"

"But we're not-"

"Seriously, I'm happy for the two of you…"

_It's Catherine's fault that we got caught in a compromising position in the first place, so…_

Sara picked up her things. "You know, Catherine, we were a lot more discreet last time, weren't we?"

She was out of the locker room before Catherine could even clarify what she meant.

"I really love spending time with you," Sara was lead across Grissom's lap, flicking through the channels.

"Did you notice the way Sophia was acting?"

"It's just as I thought. She's beginning to sense emotions, and I think she might be attracted to jealousy, considering the way she reacted with our murder suspect."

"How much longer will it be until she starts needing blood?"

"I have no idea…"

Sara's cell phone rang, and she reached over to answer it.

"Sidle," Sara listened for a while, then said, "She's what?"

"I can't get hold of her. I keep calling her cell but she doesn't answer. Have you seen her?"

"No. Listen, Heather, there's something I've gotta tell you about Sophia…"

"What?"

"There's a rather large possibility that Sophia is a vampire."

There was silence on the other end, then Heather slowly said, "And exactly how do you know this?"

"She reacted to a jealous suspect, and I read that the only vampiric trait that the child of a vampire and human should retain is longevity."

"It sounds as though she herself didn't-wait, did you just say she reacted to someone who was jealous?"

"Yes."

"How strongly did she react?"

"Well, by the way she was gripping the table, it was as though she was trying to keep herself from biting him."

"If she reacted like that…she'll probably need blood soon…"

"If we can't reach her, maybe she's looking for some…"

She didn't really want this. She didn't want to bite people. She didn't want to drink blood. She didn't want to lose that grip on her humanity.

_But if this is happening now, was I ever human?_

Of course. She'd always been a vampire, she'd just never realised it until now.

_And what's the point of missing being human, if I was never human in the first place?_

As Sophia walked through the path in the park, she noticed a woman sitting on a bench up ahead, her head in her hands. She had a strange feeling that she knew her.

Then she realised who it was.

_Catherine._

As she approached the bench, she sat down next to her. Catherine didn't move.

"Something wrong?"

Catherine sat up and looked at her, and Sophia could tell that she'd been crying.

"Why did she find it so easy?" she whispered, "Why can she tell him how she feels, but I can't…"

"You can't what?"

"I can't tell Warrick how I feel…"

_Thud_.

What was this? This overwhelming urge to bite…she didn't understand it…

But if she was reacting to Catherine now, then…

_So…my taste is jealousy…I'll be getting rid of Catherine's jealousy towards Sara…_

_After everything Warrick and Catherine have been through, they deserve to be happy…but if Catherine is still jealous of Sara, then she won't be truly happy…_

"You know, Catherine," Sophia leaned forward, "I could do something about that…"

Catherine frowned at her. "What do you mean, Sophia?"

"I could take all of that jealousy away…"

"Sophia, what are you talking about?"

Sophia's hands clamped down on Catherine's wrists in a vice-like grip, so Catherine found herself unable to move.

_What the…she shouldn't be that strong…_

As Sophia felt her fangs begin to elongate, Catherine saw them too, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

_No. Freaking. Way._

* * *

Yes, freaking way, readers. Fear not, I have three free periods tomorrow, and doing homework then would be a waste of time, so I should get a lot written then...but for now...reviews...or you shall suffer the blow of Heather's RED slipper. Mwahahahaha...


	7. Complicated love is so embarrassing

I'm sooooo sorry I'm posting this so late! I've had a foreign exchange student at my house for the past week and she only went home a few days ago...and then my teachers decided to pile on the homework...yeah...ask me anything you want about the nominative, dative and accusative cases in German or, if you like, I could throw in some of my expert knowledge on lexical cohesion...*faints from exhaustion*

I have a rather good idea for a new fic, however I'll wait until I've finished this one so I don't confuse myself by working on two at the same time.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin. Jedoch, Anju gehört mir, und damit basta. Hehe.

* * *

It was at times like these that Sara dearly wished that she had a normal life.

Heather had agreed to search the Strip, whilst Grissom was back at Sara's apartment, just in case. Sara was currently running in the direction of the park.

_Why? Why couldn't she have called us instead of going off and potentially doing something stupid?_

When she reached the park, she took off down the path that lead through it. As she ran, she could see someone led on a bench not too far away. And someone else was standing over them…

_Sophia and Catherine._

Sara stopped behind Sophia, who was standing over an unconscious Catherine. As Sophia turned round, she licked the blood from around her mouth.

"I think she got slightly anaemic," Sophia said quietly.

"Are you okay?" Sara took another step towards her.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Sophia smiled slightly. "My taste is jealousy."

"That means..." Sara looked down at Catherine, "she's jealous?"

"Of you."

Sara frowned at her. "Why me?"

"Because when it came down to it, you were able to tell Grissom how you felt. She doesn't think she can do the same with Warrick."

Sophia smiled at her encouragingly. "But it's okay now. I sucked all of her jealousy, so she won't be envious of you anymore."

Sara's phone rang a few times, until Sara flipped it open. "Hey, Heather, it's me. I found her."

****

The good thing was, Sophia was okay.

The bad thing was, she wasn't.

She felt a lot less jealous of Sara, but there was still the 'Nick-misinterpreting-what-he-saw' issue to be dealt with.

As Catherine walked into the break room, she knew something was wrong.

Sara was the first to notice her. _Nick told him,_ she mouthed.

_I should have erased his memory rather than trying to give him a believeable excuse._

"How many times do I have to tell you, Nick, Sara and I are not a couple!" Catherine only just managed to resist throttling him as she sat down next to Sara.

"I think Sara's boyfriend would be jealous if the two of them were a couple," Grissom said as he walked in.

Greg grinned. "You know him, Grissom?"

"I do, actually."

Sara had to keep herself from laughing out loud.

Grissom paired Catherine with Warrick, and she grimaced.

_Why does he keep-wait, no, this is a good thing! I can tell him the truth…to a certain extent…_

As they were on their way to the crime scene, Warrick spoke up. "So, is there actually anything between you and Sara?"

Catherine nearly crashed the vehicle. "No, of course not! Nick misinterpreted what he saw."

"But he said-"

"Yeah, but-" _How am I going to explain it to him?_

Catherine took a deep breath. "I'm…not in a relationship with Sara. She already has a boyfriend."

Warrick looked at her for a moment, then his face broke into a grin. "It's Grissom, isn't it?"

Catherine kept quiet.

"I knew it."

"You didn't hear it from me."

As they pulled up to the scene, they saw Grissom and Sara walking towards the yellow tape.

"What are you two doing here?" Catherine yelled as they went after them with their kits

"We got kicked off our case; this case is bigger, so they got some people from swing to cover it," Sara explained.

When the four of them entered the warehouse, Sara and Catherine covered their mouths and noses.

"There's so much blood," whispered Sara.

They began processing the scene. Catherine and Sara were trying hard not to think about blood but, considering the situation, that was quite difficult.

Sara heard something, or someone, move on the floor above, and her hand flew to her gun.

"You hear that, Catherine?"

Catherine took out her gun. "Yep."

"Where are the two of you going?" asked Warrick.

"We think there might be a suspect on the premises."

_How would they even know that?_

With their guns drawn, the four of them made their way to the next floor, to find the suspect trying to escape out of a window.

"Las Vegas Police!" yelled Catherine.

The suspect turned round and fired at Sara and Catherine. They didn't move, nor did the bullets do any damage to them.

"How…?" Warrick was speechless.

_So bullets can't hurt them,_ thought Grissom.

The suspects eyes widened. He fired at them once more and, again, they weren't affected.

"What are you?" he yelled.

Catherine turned to look at Warrick. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

In an instant, both women had the suspect pinned to the ground.

"If you hadn't fired your gun and discovered us, I wouldn't have to do this," Catherine said as she erased the man's memory.

They got off him and came to stand in front of Warrick.

"What are they doing?" Warrick asked Grissom.

"I think they're trying to decide on whether or not Catherine should erase your memory," Grissom replied.

Catherine didn't want Warrick to see her as some kind of…monster, but at the same time, she wanted to be completely honest with him.

"He might be worth testing, Cath," Sara looked at her. "Just like you did with Gil."

_Gil…I knew it…_

"Don't worry, Warrick," smiled Sara. "As long as you keep out secret, you'll be fine. But," she leaned forward, "if you break her heart, I'll make your mind completely blank."

_But she can't even erase memories…_

"Sara! Don't scare him like that!" Catherine scolded, blushing slightly.

"But…how can you even erase memories?" Warrick asked.

Sara smiled at him, showing him her fangs. Warrick took a step backwards in shock.

"No way…you too, Catherine?"

Catherine nodded slowly.

"What are you guys doing up here?" asked Brass as he walked into the room, only to find the suspect unconscious on the floor.

"We apprehended the suspect," Catherine smiled.

"He shot at us, and we weren't injured, but because he saw, Catherine erased his memory," Sara explained further.

_Why are they just telling him that?_

****

It was the end of shift, and Catherine had managed to make it almost all the way to her car without being caught by Warrick. Or so she thought.

"Catherine?"

_Oh crap, he's gonna ask me questions about earlier…_

"Why have you been trying to avoid me ever since we got back from the crime scene?"

"Because…"

"You thought that your being a vampire would mean that I wouldn't accept you?"

"Well, naturally."

Warrick looked shocked. "Catherine, how could you ever think that?"

He took a step towards her, but she backed away.

"Sara's a vampire too, but she and Grissom-"

"It's not the same!"

Warrick frowned. "How so?"

"She's…not…a normal vampire…"

"What do you mean, she's not normal?"

"Her blood increases, so when she bites someone, she injects her excess blood. She's not as susceptible to certain things as regular vampires are…so she's practically human."

"Like crosses, garlic and sunlight?"

"Crosses don't harm vampires anyway, but even though she can still smell garlic strongly, it's as though she's addicted to it. And even though sunlight can wipe me out, she loves sunlight."

"But what does that have to do with-"

"I'm not like that. I don't really like sunlight, I eat garlic but I can still be repulsed by the smell at times…it just…won't work…"

"But I'm still confused-"

"You're a human! I'm a vampire! It could never work out! Can't you understand that?"

"I don't see the problem."

Catherine looked at him.

He took her face in his hands. "Does it _really_ bother you?"

Catherine looked at him for a long while, then swatted his hands away.

"I'm sorry, Warrick, we can't."

She turned on her heel and walked towards her car, leaving an incredibly confused Warrick to stare after her.

****

There was an unexpected knock at his door, which Warrick answered.

What was even more unexpected than that was Catherine throwing her arms around him.

She clung on to him, silently refusing to let go. He had to forcefully remove her arms from around his neck.

"Catherine, I thought you said that-"

"I lied, Warrick."

Warrick tried to pull away from her, but she only clung on to him tighter.

"I don't know what it is about you," she whispered, "But even though I tried to distance myself from you, it's not working."

"Catherine-"

"I love you."

That had caught him completely off guard.

_She loves me…_

"I'm deeply in love with you," she continued, "I don't care if the lab says I can't…I don't care if other vampires say I can't…I didn't choose to fall in love with you, I just did…"

She smiled up at him. "I can perfectly understand why you wouldn't feel the same way…I guess most people would be-"

She was silenced by Warrick brushing his lips gently over hers.

"Catherine, how could you ever think that?"

"I…er…"

"I love you, too."

_No way…_

He kissed her again. She sighed happily and slid her arms around his neck.

When they pulled apart, Catherine leant her head on Warrick's shoulder.

"You're not stressed anymore."

"How did you know that I was stressed?"

"I could sense it."

"How?"

"It'll be too much to take in now," Catherine sniffed the air. "You're making popcorn."

"I was about to watch a film, but then a beautiful woman turned up on my doorstep and confessed her love for me."

"And she wants to spend some time with the man she loves."

"What an incredible coincidence..."

Catherine smiled. _This is perfect…no one could possibly jeopardise this…_

How little she knew…

****

It was an unusually quiet night. Catherine and Warrick were working on the only B&E that seemed to have taken place in Vegas and, for some reason, they'd eagerly volunteered to work together. Hmmm…

Sara was sat reading a book in the break room. The book was actually in German, a language which she'd picked up when she'd lived in Germany for a while. Maybe she should go and impress Grissom with her German. She loved it when he complimented her.

She made her way to his office, ready to blast him with various phrases he probably wouldn't understand. When she got there, she overheard the tail-end of Grissom's sentence.

"…scared that you're going to be turned into blood sucking monsters!"

Time stopped.

The book dropped to the floor.

She didn't hear anything after that. She simply stared at him in shock.

_Blood sucking monsters…_

"So that's how it is," she whispered before turning and walking out of the room.

_Oh no, she only heard that last part…_

He picked up the book she'd dropped and went after her, leaving Nick and Greg standing in his office, totally confused.

He found her sat in the locker room, crying. He sat down next to her and pulled her close to him.

"I knew this was too good to be true," she sniffed.

"You didn't hear everything that I said, Sara," he whispered.

"I heard enough."

"No, you didn't."

Sara looked up at him, leaning into his touch as he brushed a stray tear from her cheek.

"Sara, did you let Catherine have some of your blood before shift?"

Sara's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"Nick and Greg told me."

"They…"

"I asked them why they'd come to me when Catherine was the person they should have been going to, and I pointed out to them that they probably didn't go to her because they were just scared of being turned into blood sucking monsters."

_I totally misunderstood…_

"I was about to ask you in private if you wanted to tell them. I didn't feel it was my place to say anything."

Sara snuggled up to him. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. But…how are we going to explain to Nick and Greg?"

"I'll get Catherine to erase their memories."

"Why can't you?"

"I can't erase memories, probably because I'm not a normal vampire."

Grissom's phone rang. "Grissom," he answered.

He listened for a while, then said, "Okay, Jim, we'll be right there."

"After he'd hung up, he said, "We have a 419 in Henderson."

"Back to work," sighed Sara.

****

She walked out of the airport, and looked up at the dark sky.

Lots of people looked at her strangely, since she'd just walked off a plane with no hold or hand luggage with her.

Like she needed them.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled.

"It's been a while, Las Vegas," she smiled to herself.

****

Sara had seen some strange crime scenes, but this one took the cake. Literally.

The dead man was sat at a table in the garden, with his face in a Victoria Sponge cake and the back of his throat slit.

"Maybe the cake killed him," David jokingly suggested as he took the temperature of the corpse.

Sara turned round to look at the people gathered round the tape, and her heart skipped a beat.

In the crowd, towards the back, there was someone…

…someone who looked almost exactly like Sara herself.

_No…it couldn't be…_

She blinked and the woman was gone. But there was no doubt about it. She'd definitely been there.

But if it was _her_…why now?

****

"Gil, there's something I need to talk to you about," Sara said as they walked down the corridor.

"Sara," Catherine came out of nowhere, "You decided about breakfast yet?"

"You never asked."

"Yeah, I did. Five minutes ago, when I told you that I got your message, erased Greg and Nick's memories and that Warrick and I are now a couple."

They both stared at her.

"Catherine," Sara began, "About that last part…"

"Sara, you weren't here five minutes ago," Grissom whispered in her ear.

"I know," Sara whispered back, then turned to Catherine. "Where did I go?"

"The break room."

Sara grabbed Grissom's arm and practically dragged him to the break room.

A tall, slim woman was stood with her back to them. Grissom noticed that she looked _incredibly_ like Sara from behind.

"No way," Sara breathed.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" the woman turned around.

Grissom audibly gasped.

Apart from the fact that her hair was longer and darker, and that there was no gap in her teeth, the woman stood in front of him looked _exactly_ like Sara. They were even wearing similar clothes.

"Wh-wh-what are _you_ doing here?!" Sara stammered.

"Can't I pay a visit to my darling granddaughter?" the woman smiled.

_Granddaughter?_

* * *

  
Reviews please! They make me happy, and I'm more likely to update sooner if I get reviews. Heather wasn't in this chapter, but she's still my personal slave, so you know what that means...


	8. Relatives are so embarrassing

I actually finished this day ago, and I don't really have an excuse as to why I haven't posted it...

Things happen in this chapter...English translations will be provided at the end of the chapter...don't worry, you'll understand when you come to it...

This chapter is more eventful than the last one...which is good...if anyone's confused by anything in the story so far, just ask...

Some lines and inspiration are taken out of episode 7 of Karin.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSIor Karin. Nevertheless, Anju is all mine, so I'm now going to buy her as many Goth-Loli dresses and soft toys as she wants...

* * *

"GRANDMOTHER?!" Catherine and Warrick stared at her in surprise.

They were sat in their usual diner, watching Sara being manhandled by her grandmother, who just so happened to look exactly the same age as Sara.

"Annabelle, call me Anna," she smiled, clinging onto Sara's arm.

"You're so embarrassing," sighed Sara.

"How old are you?" asked Catherine.

"Seven hundred."

At that point, Warrick nearly fainted.

"H-how are you s-s-seven hundred years old?!" Warrick stuttered.

_Oh, of course, _thought Catherine, _I never told him about the age thing…_

"Wait…Catherine, if she's…does that mean…"

"I stopped counting after two hundred," Catherine smiled, then looked concerned as Warrick passed out in shock.

"Sara's been alive for two-and-a-half centuries, haven't you, Sara-chen?" Anna rested her head on Sara's shoulder.

"Grandma…"

"Call me Anna, honey. People will think it's weird that you're calling me your grandmother when we look the same age."

When the food arrived, the smell woke Warrick up. Anna grabbed her plate and began eating rapidly.

"Don't eat like that!" Sara reprimanded her, stealing a mushroom off her plate.

"That was _my_mushroom! That's it, young lady," Anna held her knife in a very lethal position. "This means war!"

"Ladies, calm down," sighed Grissom.

"Sorry, Gil," Sara pouted, and Anna mimicked the action.

Catherine looked lazily out of the window, only to see Greg and Nick walking across the car park.

_Crap, what are _they _doing here?_

"Er, guys…" Catherine pointed to the two men. Everyone turned to look.

"I thought they said they weren't coming. Why are they here?" Warrick wondered out loud.

"Not only that," Sara held up the arm that Anna was clinging on to, "How are we going to explain my clingy grandmother who looks the same age as me?"

"Hey, guys!" Greg said cheerfully, walking up to the table.

_Oh no, oh no, oh no…_

"Wow, Sara, you never told us you had an identical twin!" Nick stared at the two women in amazement.

"She's my…older cousin, Annabelle," Sara forced a smile.

_Hopefully they'll buy that one…_

"She really does look like you," Greg sat down next to Catherine.

"It's been far too long since we've seen each other, hasn't it, Sara?" smiled Anna.

_Yeah, like, fifty years…_

"You know, Anna," Greg's voice brought Sara out of her thoughts, "I could easily fall for you."

Sara stared at him in horror. _He is _not _trying to hit on my grandmother…well, he doesn't _know _she's my grandmother, but still…_

"Awww, this boy's very sweet, Sara," Annabelle giggled, "What's his name?"

"Greg," Sara sighed in despair.

"You're so sweet, Greg!"

_She's talking about him the way a doting old woman might talk about her grandchild,_ thought Sara, _I have to intervene._

"Anna, du sollst nicht sprechen, wie du meineGroßmutter bist," Sara scowled.

Everyone at the table, apart from Annabelle, stared at her, all thinking the same thing: _Sara speaks German?!_

"So spricht man _nicht _mit seiner Großmutter," Annabelle replied.

"How do you know German, Sara?" asked Nick, who was sat next to Greg.

_If I tell them I lived in Germany for a while, they'll think I'm lying…as far as they know, I graduated high school, got two degrees and became a CSI. Thirty eight years wouldn't allow for all that _and _living in Germany for just over two decades…_

"I lived in Germany for a while," said Annabelle. "I taught her because knowing another language helped me to understand people better. And besides," she ruffled Sara's hair. "I remember when you used to say how much you wanted to be like me!"

"Stop it, Anna!" Sara tried to push her hand away in vain whilst everyone laughed at the two of them.

_It helped _me _to understand people better…that's why _I _taught _her _German,_thought Sara.

_But…why is she covering for me? Why is she acting like this?_

_More importantly, I'm not entirely buying her 'just-visiting-her-granddaughter' story._

_Why is she actually here?_

"Oh, Sara, you have such a lovely apartment!" Annabelle skipped through the front door.

_She skips?_

Sara shut the door behind her and dropped her bag down on the kitchen tabletop.

"Grandma, we need to talk."

"Sara, I told you to call me-"

"I'm serious."

Annabelle stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Why are you here?"

"I already told you-"

"Look, I don't buy that 'it's-been-a-long-time-so-I-thought-I'd-come-visit' crap for one minute. It's not like you to pay a family member a visit without having some ulterior motive."

Sara stepped closer to her. "I'll ask you again…why are you _really _here?"

Annabelle suddenly went very quiet. She sat down on the couch and patted the space next to her.

As Sara sat down, Annabelle took her hand.

"Sara," she began, "Do you remember when you were a little girl, and I used to read you bedtime stories?"

Sara smiled. "Yeah, and I always used to beg you to read that story…wow, I can't even remember what the story was-"

"You have to remember."

Sara frowned at her grandmother. "Well, it was over two hundred years ago-"

"Please, Sara, you have to remember what story you always wanted me to read."

Sara closed her eyes, and tried very hard to remember…

"_Grandma, can you read me a story?" Sara asked as her grandmother tucked her into bed._

"_Which one would you like?" Annabelle smiled._

"_You know…"_

"_I'll never understand why you like this one so much," Annabelle shook her head, picking a book up from the bedside table._

_A while later, they were up to Sara's favourite part in the story._

"'_Any vampires around? If I find me a vampire…Boom! A silver bullet straight through the heart. Bang! Pop the head off. Grind! Use pliers to pull the fangs out. And then…'"_

"_And then…"_

"_Sara, are you sure I should be reading this to you?"_

"_Mom and Dad don't mind."_

"_Are you sure about that?"_

_Sara grinned, exposing the gap in her teeth. "Besides, vampire slayers aren't real, right?"_

_Annabelle bit her lip. "Of course not, sweetie."_

"_So I don't have to worry about them?"_

"_No."_

"_Grandma and me can be happy!" Sara threw her arms around the woman._

"_Yes, we can, Sara," Annabelle hugged her back, "Yes we can…"_

"I don't remember what it was called," Sara said slowly, "But it was about vampire slayers."

Annabelle nodded.

"But, they don't exist, right? You told me…" Sara's voice trailed off as she looked at the other woman's face.

_Why isn't she confirming that they don't exist? Could it be…that she lied?_

"Grandma, do they exist?"

Silence.

Her eyes grew wide as she realised what her grandmother's silence meant. "You…you lied!" Sara stood up and backed away from her grandmother. "You lied to me! I trusted you and you lied! And now, after fifty years, you come breezing back into my life, still lying! Why would you-"

"Because I know you better than you think I do!"

Sara frowned at her, not quite knowing what she meant.

"If you'd known that vampire slayers existed," Annabelle began to explain, "You'd have lived in hiding. You'd have stayed away from people, not wanting to be a burden to them. You…you wouldn't have found happiness with Gil."

Sara scowled. _Only I'm allowed to call him that…and Catherine…and Jim, _Sara suddenly realised. She also realised that her grandmother was completely right.

_That's exactly what I'd have done, had I known…she did me a favour by lying to me…_

"I did come to visit you, Sara…to make sure you were safe."

Sara stared at her. "You mean…there's a…"

Annabelle nodded. "There's a vampire slayer here in Vegas."

Sara turned white. "Y-you're joking, right?"

"I wish I were," Annabelle stood up and walked over to Sara. "I don't know where in Vegas they are, but I refuse let anything happen to you. That's why I'm here."

Sara power-walked from the locker room to Grissom's office. It was best for him to know now than to find out later.

"Gil," Sara closed the door behind her. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Go ahead," Grissom removed his glasses.

She sat down opposite him and looked down at her feet. "It's the reason my grandmother is here."

Grissom sat patiently and waited.

"There's a vampire slayer in Vegas."

His eyes widened. "Sara, it's not safe here if there's someone out to kill vampires."

"It's okay, Gil, my grandmother won't let anything happen to me."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Look," she sighed, "Just because she's seven hundred, it doesn't mean she's incapable of fighting slayers. She's done it plenty of times before."

"I'm still slightly uneasy about this…"

"Promise you won't worry about me," Sara pouted, "I don't like it when you have to worry about me."

_How can I say no to those beautiful brown eyes?_

"I won't."

Sara smiled at him, then moved around to sit on his lap.

"Thank you," she whispered before kissing him.

Neither of them heard the door open, so neither of them knew that anyone was in the room until they heard, "Gil, aren't you going to-wow!"

They pulled apart to find Catherine stood staring at them. Her shocked expression slowly morphed into a grin.

"You know, if I'd been Ecklie, the two of you would probably have been fired right now," she pointed out.

"Catherine…"

They made their way to the break room, where Grissom handed out the assignments.

"Gil, why did you put us with Greg?" Sara asked quietly as they went to get their kits.

"If we work together all the time, someone might suspect something."

_But I like working with you…alone…_

About half an hour later, the three of them found themselves stood in front of a huge pile-up in the middle of the road.

_Great, _thought Sara, _So much to process…this could potentially take hours._

As she was dusting what was left of a car door for fingerprints, her phone rang.

"Hello?" Sara answered.

"It's me."

She looked round to make sure Greg wasn't nearby. "Grandma? Why are you calling me? And how did you get my number?"

"It was written down on a piece of paper. Listen, I was walking past the crime lab, and I smelled one."

"One what?"

"A vampire slayer."

Sara frowned. "You can smell them?"

"You should be able to, if you're near one."

Her eyes widened. "That means…"

"A slayer was near the crime lab. They may or may not know about you, so stay alert."

After she'd hung up, Sara carried on processing evidence. As she did so, she wondered if the vampire slayer really _did _know about her. If so, did they know about Catherine, Heather and Sophia too?

_What if they work at the crime lab?_

She nearly laughed out loud at her own stupidity. If a slayer _did _work at the lab, she'd have probably sensed something by now. And if the slayer in question knew anything about Sara herself, they'd have probably done something about it by now.

"Sara, can you give me a hand?" Greg's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Be right there, Greg!"

When they got back to the lab, Sara decided that she would follow her grandmother's advice and stay alert.

As she walked into DNA, she came across Wendy…and someone she hadn't seen before.

"Oh, hey, Sara, this is Craig Thompson," Wendy smiled, "Craig, this is Sara Sidle."

Craig seemed a cheerful guy, with blond hair and bright blue eyes. Sara had to admit, he wasn't bad-looking…for other women. For her, there was no one else apart from Gilbert Grissom.

He stared at her for a while, then said, "It seems that, after all this time, we meet again."

Sara frowned at him.

"Waaait a minute," Wendy looked back and forth between the two of them, "You guys have already met?"

"I'm sorry, Craig," said Sara, "But this is the first time I've ever met you."

"For you, it may be the first time," Craig smiled, "But not for me."

Sara didn't breathe much in the lab, partly because she'd discovered, over the years, that she didn't need to breathe as often as humans and could therefore hold her breath for longer, and partly because of the smell of blood in DNA and Trace. It was just after Craig had spoken that she took a breath and realised she'd been unnecessarily holding it for some time, since there wasn't really the scent of blood in the air.

It was also then that an unusual smell hit her.

It was unlike anything she'd ever smelt before. She couldn't begin to describe it, but it was incredibly…weird. In fact, she didn't really like it.

And the stranger thing was, the smell seemed to be coming from Craig.

At the time, Sara didn't really think much of it, and figured he must have just put on some bad cologne, but later on, she realised that she probably shouldn't have been so naïve.

As she walked past the break room, she saw Annabelle seated at the table.

"Anna," Sara entered the room, "What are you doing-"

"It's here, Sara, I can feel it."

Sara froze. "Really?"

Annabelle got out of her seat and walked up to Sara. She sniffed the air, then took a step back. "You've been near them."

"So…anyone who's been near a slayer smells like one?"

"For a while, yes."

_So that's it…Craig must have inadvertently come into contact with the slayer, and the scent rubbed off on him. That's why he smelled weird._

"Hellooo, Sara," Catherine stopped dead just inside the doorway, "and Anna."

"Catherine, you've gotta be-" Anna caught the look on Sara's face, which prompted her to be quiet.

"What?" Catherine looked back and forth between the two women, "Is there something I should know?"

Sara sighed. "Grandma thinks there's a vampire slayer in the lab."

Catherine's eyes widened. "There's…a slayer…here?"

"Chances are, they don't know about us. If they did, they'd have done something about it."

"True."

Later on, Sara and Greg were sat in the break room, eating pizza, going over case notes, with Anna occasionally stealing bits, when Wendy and Craig joined them. Craig got out some shishkebabs and started eating one of them.

Sara, who was munching on a slice of vegetarian pizza, noticed the smell again. _How much contact was he in with that slayer, anyway?_

"Oops, we must say grace before we eat," Craig put down his kebab.

He reached down his shirt and pulled out a necklace with what looked like a tooth of some sort.

We thank you for the food on this table," He held the tooth in his hands, "and for the lovely women who are eating with Greg and I…"

Sara had to smile at that. He could have at least _tried _not to use God's name as a means of flirting with women.

"…may there be peace in the world…and may all vampires face divine punishment."

Sara froze, the slice of pizza halfway to her mouth.

"Huh?" Wendy raised an eyebrowat him.

"This tooth was given to me by my father...the fang of a vampire."

_You're joking, right?_

"Oh, I haven't told you yet, have I?" Craig smiled. "My family is descended from a long line of skilled vampire slayers."

Sara started to shake. _This…can't…be…_

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge, which showed to them.

"And I would also be a proud vampire slayer."

_No. Freaking. Way._

* * *

-chen=German suffix meaning 'little' or 'small'

Du sollst nicht sprechen wie du meine Großmutter bist=You shouldn't talk like you're my grandmother

So spricht man nicht mit seiner Großmutter=That's no way to speak to your grandmother

* * *

Yes, I'm evil...but Heather's less forgiving than me...so reviews are greatly appreciated! Remember, more reviews-more story!


	9. Vampire slayers are so embarrassing

Sorry that it's been a while...coursework essays coursework...yep...hope this satisfies...and this site isn't letting me divide up different parts of the chapter...grr...but you'll be able to tell when the setting is changing =]

We have snow! At least, I do, and I'm incredibly happy! And yet, I have no idea what I'm getting for Christmas...no idea at all...

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin *sees Anju* But I do own Anju, and I'll even let her play in the snow...

* * *

Grissom had set out in search of Sara, when he was acosted by Annabelle in the hallway.

"Have you seen Sara?" he asked her.

"No, but…the new guy? Craig Thompson? He's a vampire slayer."

"You're…kidding…"

"No, but-"

Grissom power-walked down the hall and saw Wendy sitting in the break room.

"Wendy, have you seen Sara?" he asked as he stood in the doorway.

"She's just in the layout room."

"Thanks."

He practically ran to the layout room, where he found Sara looking over some evidence.

_She's okay…she's alive…_

Sara looked up from the table. "Gil, what are you-"

She suddenly found herself being embraced by him.

"Gil, we're at work. Someone might-"

"I don't care, Sara. You could've been killed. He could've-"

"He's not a danger to us right now."

They both turned to look at Annabelle, who was stood at the door.

"What I was _about_ to say to you before you ran off was that he is completely unaware of anything."

"What do you mean?" asked Grissom.

"Follow me."

They followed Annabelle to DNA where they found Craig trying to flirt with Catherine, and Warrick was stood nearby, trying to control his jealousy.

Sara smiled, trying to contain her laughter. _A vampire slayer…flirting with a vampire…_

Her attempts were in vain, since she still burst out laughing. In her attempt to control herself, she slipped and ended up in Grissom's arms.

At that moment, Ecklie walked past, so they quickly straightened themselves out.

"You see," Anna smiled, "He's not a liability in the least."

_Yeah,_ thought Sara, _Everything's fine…_

Annabelle decided that, since she'd be staying with Sara for a while, she might as well get a job to give herself something to do.

But getting a decent, and legal, job in Las Vegas wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. She'd spent two whole days searching and she still hadn't been successful. But she was still being positive, to the point where she was driving Sara insane.

On the third day, when Sara got home from work, Annabelle was cooking something, which smelled quite delicious.

"What are you making?" Sara put her bag down on the counter.

"Your favourite," Annabelle said in a sing-song voice.

Sara grinned widely. "Soy bacon and mushroom pasta with cheese sauce?"

"Mmm-hmm."

Sara walked over and stood right next to her, peering hard at her. "You're rather perky today."

Annabelle said nothing, but carried on, humming a tune.

Sara's eyes widened. "You got a job!"

Annabelle turned and smiled at her. "No way!"

Sara raised an eyebrow. _And just _how _is that a good thing?_

"But I have a good feeling about tomorrow!"

Sara sighed deeply. _That's what you've kept saying, every day…_

"Well, Gil should be coming round about-"

The doorbell rang.

"-now. So why don't you go off to Chinatown and bring me back some Chinese food?"

Annabelle sighed. "Fine."

Sara pushed her towards the door, opened it, shoved her out and pulled Grissom in.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do, kids!" yelled Annabelle as Sara shut the door.

"She's kind of embarrassing sometimes," Sara smiled, kissing him. "Do you want some pasta?"

"Yes, please," Grissom replied.

They sat down on the couch with bowls of pasta and began eating.

"This is delicious," Grissom commented, "Did you make it?"

"Grandma did. She always makes it better than I do."

It suddenly occurred to Grissom that Sara only had a one-bedroomed apartment. "Where is your grandmother sleeping?" he asked.

"She doesn't sleep."

He frowned, confused.

"She's not needed sleep for as long as I can remember, and I've never bothered to ask about it."

The door was slammed open, making both of them jump in shock.

"Where is it?" Heather barged into the apartment, looking incredibly angry.

Sophia rushed in after her and grabbed hold of her arm. "_It's_ not here, Heather."

Sara sighed. "The slayer isn't a liability to us."

Heather stared at us in disbelief. "How can you say that?"

"Wait, how did you know that there's a vampire slayer in town?"

"I can smell it a mile off," Heather sat down in the armchair, while Sophia perched on the arm of the couch.

Sara sighed. _Maybe if I was a normal vampire, I'd be able to smell one from further away…_

"So, Sara, I'm looking forward to hearing about why this slayer isn't a danger."

"Well, if you could've seen the way he was trying to romance me and Catherine…"

Sophia and Heather stared at her for a few moments before bursting into laughter.

A few minutes later, after they'd both calmed down, Heather said, "Wow, and I thought I was getting serious about this guy?"

Sara a bit more of her pasta. "Well, just in case anything does happen-"

"Hallo, mein Liebchen!" Annabelle burst through the door, startling everyone.

Sara's jaw dropped open. "How can you possibly be back here so quickly?"

"I ran."

_Well, that explains it…_

Sara was about to introduce Annabelle to Heather and Sophia, when she noticed that they were both staring at her grandmother.

"Who are you and why do you look so much like Sara?" asked Sophia.

"That's who's gonna protect me if anything goes wrong," Sara explained, "My grandmother."

"GRANDMOTHER?!" Sophia and Heather exclaimed simultaneously.

"Call me Anna," Annabelle sat down next to Sara, putting her bags on the floor. "I see that the two of you have been good and eaten all of your pasta!"

Sara looked at her, "Why do I have a feeling that there's something more?"

Annabelle reached into one of the bags and pulled out a box.

Sara smiled in delight. "You got me mushroom-shaped chocolate biscuits…wait, how did you get something Japanese in Chinatown?"

"There's a shop selling Japanese food…I thought you liked going to Chinatown?"

"Well, I haven't been for a while…"

Annabelle suddenly looked distant. "Sara, what's the surname of that slayer again?"

"Thompson."

Her eyes widened, then she smiled.

"Ah, yes, the Thompsons…the only line of slayers who have ever been a problem to me."

"You knew his ancestors?"

"All the other slayers were wimps and would run away just at the sight of vampires. But that family…they _never_ gave up. Of course, they never managed to capture me, but having to stay on my guard all the time was still a pain."

Annabelle sighed. "But this Craig guy hasn't caught on to the fact that you and Catherine are vampires, which he should have done…so we have nothing to worry about…"

Sara hadn't even realised that she'd fallen asleep until the phone woke her up. Upon seeing the caller ID, however, she was instantly revitalised.

"Hello, Gilbert," she answered huskily.

She could hear him swallow hard at the other end. "I was wondering…since we're both off tonight…if you'd like to have dinner with me…"

_He's asking me to dinner! Finally!_

"I'd love to," Sara grinned, trying to contain her excitement.

"Say, seven?"

"Sure!"

"Okay, see you then."

As Sara rang off, she glanced at the clock, which told her it was five o'clock.

_Oh crap._

She zoomed into the bathroom and quickly got showered. She then found herself stood in the middle of her bedroom, struggling to decide on what to wear.

_When was the last time I was asked out to dinner?_

_Oh yeah. Hank. Don't want to remember _that_._

She eventually settled on a spaghetti-strap red dress which came to just above her knees, with a red handbag and red high-heels to match. She was just finishing putting on her make-up when the doorbell rang.

"Shall I get that, Sara?" Annabelle's voice floated into her room.

"I'll get it!" Sara threw her necessities into her handbag and raced to the door.

She opened the door with a huge smile on her face.

Grissom stared at her in awe. "Y-you look beautiful, Sara," he managed.

Her smile grew bigger. "And you look incredibly handsome," she said as she pecked him on the lips.

"You two look so sweet together!" Annabelle bounded up to them, "I can't believe that my little Sara is-"

Sara gave her a look. "You're not gonna stalk us, are you?"

"No…"

A few minutes later, Sara and Grissom were on the road. Grissom noticed that Sara had barely said a word since they'd left her apartment.

"Sara, are you okay?" he asked her.

"You're not wondering why my grandmother obsesses over me?"

"Well, actually, I-"

"She practically raised me."

He glanced over at her. She'd only ever told him about the abuse that she and her mother suffered at the hands of her father.

"My parents argued nearly all the time," she went on, "and I always used to go to Grandma for refuge. I spent more time with her than with my own parents."

He reached over and took her hand.

"I feel like I can be honest with you," she smiled, "because I know you won't look at me differently for it."

"Sara."

She looked over at him.

"I want you to be able to be open with me about anything," he said.

Sara smiled happily. _Could I be any more in love with him?_

They soon arrived at the Bellagio.

"Which restaurant are we going to, Gil?" Sara asked as they got out of the car.

"I don't mind," he replied.

Sara's face lit up. "Can we go to the one that sells Japanese food?"

He nodded. "Any particular reason?"

"Not really, I just feel like Japanese food…"

Sara dragged Grissom through the doors of the oriental-styled restaurant.

"I love this place!" she exclaimed.

"How many times have you been here before?" he asked her.

"Maybe once or twice."

At that point, several waiters and waitresses walked past, greeting Sara in turn. Grissom raised an eyebrow at her.

She sighed. "Okay, maybe three or four times."

Once they'd been seated and given some water, they started looking at the menu.

"They have some new dishes!" Sara grinned, "They even have a sushi platter!"

"There's meat and fish in it," Grissom pointed out. "You're a vegetarian."

"So…I eat fish, and I wouldn't want to deprive you of meat just because of me."

Before Grissom could reply, Sara called one of the waitresses over to their table. She then proceeded to make the order entirely in Japanese, with Grissom staring at her all the while.

After the waitress had gone, she turned back to see him staring at her. "What?" she frowned, "I also lived in Japan for a while!"

_Also…_

"Sara, it was you who lived in Germany, wasn't it?" asked Grissom.

Sara smiled. "Yeah, for just over twenty years."

His eyes widened. "So that's why Annabelle covered for you…"

"Well, I couldn't really have Greg and Nick asking me how I could have lived my life _and_ lived in Germany for over two decades, could I?"

Their food soon arrived, and Sara immediately started tucking in.

"I never realised that you ate fish," Grissom admitted.

Sara smiled. "I used to get a lot of grief from other vegetarians who thought that I wasn't a 'true' vegetarian because I ate fish. But now, nobody bothers me about it." She noticed that he wasn't eating. "I did order this for both of us, you know."

Grissom picked up the chopsticks that were by his plate and held them in his hand. "I don't know which is which…"

Sara stared hard at the platter. "Those are maki," she pointed to the smaller rolls, "there's red pepper, avocado, smoked salmon and chive, tuna, asparagus, and cucumber."

Grissom picked up one containing red pepper and popped it in his mouth. He chewed slowly whilst Sara stared at him, expectantly, with wide eyes.

"It's delicious," he said once finished.

Sara grinned. "Now I've successfully exposed you to sushi."

She picked up a salmon nigiri and took a bite. "Have you noticed anything different about the people waiting on?"

Grissom shook his head. "Not particularly. Why?"

He looked over to a pair of open French windows at the other side of the restaurant, which the full moon was shining through. Just as one of the waitresses walked past, he noticed that she took special care so as to not come into contact with the moonlight.

_But why did she…_

He turned to look at Sara, who was smiling at him, knowingly.

_No…that's impossible…_

"You mean…they're…"

She nodded.

He frowned. "Then…why aren't you fighting?"

Sara began to laugh. "Despite what Twilight has brought people to believe, there is no war between werewolves and vampires" she said once she'd calmed down. "In fact, we get along quite well."

Sara picked up a vegetable futomaki and popped it into her mouth whole. As she sniffed the air, she could smell the usual, delicious scent of soy sauce, wasabi…and something else.

Something incredibly familiar.

"What's wrong, Sara?" asked Grissom.

Sara closed her eyes and listened to the noises in the restaurant. There were waiters and waitresses discussing menu choices with customers, doors opening and closing, people having conversations…

"Of course, Warrick."

That name, coupled with the voice of someone she'd worked with for years, made her smile.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

Sara's grin broadened. "Warrick and Catherine are here."

Grissom raised an eyebrow. "They are?"

She nodded. "I can pick out Catherine's voice anywhere, and I could smell her favourite brand of perfume. It's not available in this country, so it's rare to find someone who wears it."

"Wait, how can you…"

"I told you that vampires have more acute senses, didn't I?"

_So that's how she was able to hear Catherine's voice amidst everyone else's…_

They carried on eating, with Grissom asking the occasional question about Japanese culture. Sara was just about to answer him, when a pair of hands came down on her shoulders.

"Dating our supervisor, are we, Miss Sidle?"

Sara scowled, and turned in her seat to face Catherine. "You're just as bad, Catherine!"

Catherine looked at Grissom. "I guess we're even, Gil."

"Yeah, this'll make four of us who are in violation of lab policy."

Catherine jumped about three feet in the air. "Warrick?!" she spun round to face him. "When did you get over here?!"

"You're not planning on telling Ecklie about any of this, are you, Gil?" Sara smiled at him.

"About what?"

Sara frowned at him, but then she realised what he meant. "Right, because…we're not actually here right now..."

"But I am."

This time, all four of them jumped and turned to look at the person who had just spoken.

"Jim? What are you doing here?" asked Grissom.

"Man found dead in his hotel room," Brass explained. "A meal here was the last thing he purchased."

He then smiled. "I'm not planning on telling Ecklie about this, by the way, but as a punishment, I don't think Nick and Greg will be able to handle this one on their own."

They all sighed. _So much for a first date, _thought Sara.

"I'm home, Sis!" Craig Thompson yelled as he shut the front door behind him.

He walked into the kitchen where he found her making cheese-on-toast.

Kirstie Thompson didn't resemble her younger brother in the slightest. She was slightly shorter than him, her bone structure was noticeably different, and her medium-length black hair and piercing green eyes further distanced them in looks.

But, of course, there was the contrast in personalities. Whilst Craig was an easy-going person, who was almost never _not_ smiling, he couldn't actually remember the last time his sister smiled. She was always so serious, and constantly reprimanded him for not taking his duties as a vampire slayer seriously.

"Look, Kirstie, it's not that I don't like you staying here, but…are you sure that there's a vampire here? In Las Vegas?"

She turned to look at him. "I'm certain of it. My instincts are never wrong."

"If so…do you think it could be…"

Her eyes narrowed. "There's always the possibility."

She took a bite out of a slice of cheese-on-toast and chewed thoughtfully. "Regardless of who this vampire is, their first priority will be to try and blend into society."

"A job?"

"Exactly. Although…I highly doubt that any vampire would be crazy enough to work where you do. The amount of blood would be far too much for them to cope."

Craig sulked. "It would have been cool to find a vampire there, too!"

"You're so stupid!" Kirstie yelled. "Who would get a job in a crime lab to track down vampires?!"

He sighed. "You don't have to get mad at me. Besides, wouldn't working in a crime lab be one of the best ways for a vampire to mislead people?"

She took another bite. "That's quite true."

Craig picked up his bag. "Anyway, I'm going to bed." He swiped a slice of cheese-on-toast and walked out of the room.

Kirstie scowled. _Where is she?_ she thought to herself.

She glanced around the kitchen, and her eyes fell on an old picture of a young woman, not too dissimilar in looks to herself, smiling whilst clinging onto the arm of a handsome young man.

_They look so happy together…_

She looked up to the ceiling and clenched her teeth together. _I won't forgive you for what you did to her._

_That's right…I will make you pay for coming between them, Annabelle Sidle…even if it's the very last thing I do…_

* * *

Hallo mein Liebchen=Hello, my little love

Mwahahahaha...What will happen next? You'll have to wait and see, won't you? In the meantime...please review! It will make me smile even more than snow! That is, the white stuff that falls from the sky...not the other type of snow...


	10. Almost getting caught is so embarrassing

I hate A-Levels...they're the reason this chapter is being posted now...

Bit of slight randomness in this chapter...we get to see just how clueless Craig truly is...

Some lines and inspiration are taken from episode 8 of Karin.

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or Karin.

* * *

Sara slammed her fist into her locker door angrily. Unfortunately, she'd forgotten her own strength, and the blow left a dent behind.

Why was everyone so unhappy today? Why weren't any of them smiling?

_Honestly, how inconsiderate._

Tonight had been an incredibly quiet night so far. Greg and Nick were the only two out in the field, and nobody had any open cases, so they'd been sat around for nearly an entire shift doing absolutely nothing. Grissom was snowed under with paperwork, so she hadn't wanted to disturb him, so she and Catherine had been trying to avoid Craig's advances.

_Is he that bad at what he does? Can he really not tell that the two women he's going after are vampires?_

She headed to the break room, where she found Annabelle with her head on the table.

"Why didn't I have something to eat before we left?" she groaned.

_Thud._

"Gr-Anna, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could be _happy_ today," sighed Sara.

"But I'm _really_ hungry…maybe I should go home and eat something…"

_Thud._

Sara's hands flew to her nose. "Now you've done it!"

"What?"

"My blood!" Sara hissed. "It's increasing because of everyone's unhappiness, and you're not helping in the least!"

"Awww, Sara! You've gone red!"

"That's not a good thing!"

Thankfully, Grissom showed up at the door, instantly saw Sara's predicament, and dragged her out of the room.

A few minutes later, they were standing further down the hallway in front of a pool of blood, which had just erupted out of Sara's nose. Thankfully, it was in a quieter area of the lab, so nobody had seen anything. Even so…

"We need to clean this up!" said Sara.

Unfortunately, they heard Craig's voice floating down the corridor, getting closer by the second.

"We've got to hide!" Grissom grabbed hold of Sara's hand and led her down a corridor.

"I'm sure they came this way…" Craig was leading a large group of people who were eager to find out why Grissom had suddenly dragged Sara out of the break room.

Catherine sped up so that she was walking alongside Craig as they both rounded a corner at the same time.

That's when she saw the pool of blood. She saw it about half a second before Craig did. Then he saw it.

_Well, I might as well play innocent…_

"Craig…is that blood?" Catherine did her best to act as though she was scared, although she had a pretty good idea as to who was responsible.

She turned to see him staring at the blood and, for some reason, sporting a pair of sunglasses.

"Er, Craig, what's with the sunglasses?"

"I forgot them the other day…but they're a critical item for hunting vampires."

_Yeah, right, like wearing a pair of sunglasses is going to make you a better slayer…_

He spun round. "Stand back, everyone! I won't allow anyone to approach this area!"

"Why not?" someone yelled.

"It's for your own protection! Amateurs should listen to professionals!"

"Professional what?"

Craig took the opportunity to show his badge to everyone. "A professional vampire slayer, naturally!"

He looked at them, a determined look on his face. "There is a high probability that there is a vampire in this lab. And there is the possibility that Dr Grissom and Sara Sidle were its victims."

Catherine shook her head in despair. _Oh dear…_

In the meantime, not too far away, Grissom and Sara were slouched against a wall in a more secluded part of the lab.

Sara sighed deeply. "He said vampire."

"And we were its victims."

They turned to each other. "What should we do?"

It wasn't too long before Craig had gone to the extreme and put yellow crime scene tape at either side of the pool of blood.

"Vampires can hide themselves in places with lots of people, so a crime lab like this wouldn't be uncommon," he said.

Catherine sighed. _But what about the blood issue? Sara's a blood-maker, and I don't really _need _blood all that much, so we're unique in that respect, but most vampires would find working in a place like this incredibly hard. Maybe he just hasn't taken that on board…or maybe he's examining the situation from every angle…_

"But it's getting light outside now," Warrick pointed out, grinning at Catherine.

"Vampires have familiars to do their bidding. If they use those, they can feed in daylight."

_Vampires have familiars? _Warrick mouthed at Catherine. She nodded.

_At least he's not completely clueless,_ she thought.

"Okay, everyone, back to work-" Ecklie stopped dead in the corridor when he saw the blood. "What is this?"

"Ecklie, evacuate everyone outside the building immediately!"

"Why?"

"Everyone's lives are at risk."

"Certainly," Ecklie then proceeded to power-walk out of the building, taking nobody with him.

"The rest is up to me," Craig smiled, "As a vampire slayer, I'll rescue Sara and Dr Grissom."

_How surprising,_ thought Catherine, _Sara's a given, but now he's wanting to rescue Grissom, even though he's probably heard all the rumours about the two of them…_

"You should all evacuate at once," he said, "It may get dangerous."

"That's all the more reason for us not to go," said Henry.

"If they're in danger, we should at least help, right?" Hodges pointed out.

There was a chorus of agreement.

"Besides, there's no way we can run away from something so fun," Catherine heard.

"The two of them have been working on a lot of cases together lately!"

"Maybe they're…"

Catherine sighed. "But really," she muttered to herself, "where'd they go off to?"

Meanwhile, Sara and Grissom were sat on the sofa in Grissom's office, hoping that nobody would find them.

"It sure turned into a big mess," Sara sighed.

"He's out of control," Grissom agreed.

He took her hand. "I'm sorry about pulling you out late. We didn't even get a chance to clean it up."

"It's okay, Gil," Sara leaned on his shoulder. "I seem to rely on you quite a bit."

"It's okay," he stroked her hair, "I love you, so it doesn't matter to me."

She blushed. "I love you, too."

He got up and opened the door. "Everyone seems to have moved-I know! This is the perfect chance to destroy the evidence!"

"I'm sorry for making you worry about things totally irrelevant to a normal lifestyle!"

Sara looked up, only to find that Grissom had already left the room.

_Don't wait for me, then…_

She went after him, and they came to stand in front of the pool of blood, which was now sectioned off by yellow crime scene tape.

"Craig's doing," she commented.

"Yeah."

She looked to her left, and noticed a fine thread running across the doorway into DNA.

"What's this?" Sara plucked the string.

Just as she did so, a clattering noise came from the ceiling, causing them both to look up. Hanging above them was a line of small wooden traps, which were clipped on to the string that was linked to the door.

"What?" Sara stared in disbelief.

"A-A trap?"

"When did he…"

A thunder of footsteps sounded as Craig and his groupies rushed towards them, stopping at the other side of the tape.

"It's Grissom!"

"Sara's with him, too!"

Sara scowled as Catherine waved to her. _Catherine's with them…Warrick as well…what is the world coming to?_

"A vampire always returns to the scene of the crime," Craig smiled, "I was correct in setting a trap."

Sara cringed. "You sure use antique traps…"

"A slayer can't be picky about means when it comes to duty."

"Even Catherine and Warrick are with them," Sara said to Grissom, "What do we do?"

Grissom looked at her. "What else is there to do…"

He grabbed her hand and started running. "We can't do anything but run for it!"

"Dr Grissom!" Craig yelled after them, "Have you already fallen under the control of the vampire? Bring back Sara!"

Catherine stifled a giggle. _I was going to help them…but all things considered, I think I'll just watch to see how things turn out…_

Grissom smiled as he ran with Sara. "I'm the vampire?" He turned back to look at her. "Can vampires actually do that? Control people, I mean?"

"I can't," Sara smiled sheepishly.

"I see."

"That aside, why are we running?"

"Can you come up with a good explanation for that pool of blood?"

"Hehe, no."

"Then we run for it!"

They turned the corner…

…only to find wooden crosses spread out across the floor.

"I'm guessing Craig did this?" Sara smiled.

"He was saying about a vampire…so what do we do?"

Sara made her way down the corridor by stepping around the crosses. "Doesn't this work?"

Grissom smiled. "I forgot…crosses don't have any effect on you."

"I don't know what lead people to believe that they do…but don't go telling any slayers about it, okay? It's best if they think it's our weakness."

Once they'd made it past the crosses, round the next corner, they found that he'd also hung cloves of garlic from the ceiling.

Sara's face lit up at the sight. "Wow, so much garlic!" She turned to him. "I could use some of it in the tempura I was planning to make for breakfast, if you'd like to join me…"

"And tempura is…?"

"Deep-fried seafood and vegetables. It's quite popular in Japan."

"I'd love to," said Grissom, hand over his nose.

She left up and grabbed some cloves. "It's not just the smell of garlic that normal vampires are sensitive to. Celery, onions and other things with a strong scent are bad, too. Of course, not being normal, I can still smell them from a distance, but not as strongly."

If that wasn't enough, upon turning the _next_ corner, they discovered…

"The floor…" Sara stared in disbelief.

"He went as far as flooding the floor?" Grissom shook his head. "Not only is that a health hazard, but Craig is definitely not going to be among Ecklie's favourite people after this."

Thankfully, the water level wasn't high, so they were able to walk down the corridor without getting wet.

"Moving water doesn't do anything to you?" Grissom asked.

"Sorry," she smiled. "It's never affected me, or any vampire I know, for that matter."

Sara linked her little finger with his. "Considering he's a vampire slayer, what exactly is Craig trying to do?"

"Well, I had the same concept as him until recently…"

"But it's not like that was your fault! You never heard any different. But if he's in the business of hunting vampires, surely he'd know better..."

"Common knowledge really isn't worth much at all."

"They've passed the moving water zone!" Craig and the others stood in the flooded corridor.

"Wow, dude," Wendy's eyes were wide, "Isn't flooding the hallway pretty bad?"

_If not even moving water can faze him,_ thought Craig, _does this mean that the vampire controlling Dr Grissom is that powerful?_

"Hate to burst your bubble, Craig," said Catherine, "but it looks like game over."

"What do you mean?! This battle won't end until the vampire has been destro-"

Catherine jabbed her thumb in the direction of the other end of the corridor. Craig looked, only to find that Ecklie was stood there, not looking in the least bit impressed.

"Thompson?" Ecklie's eye twitched slightly, "Come with me for a minute."

The group was escorted to Ecklie's office to be reprimanded. At least, Craig was reprimanded.

"What are you trying to do to my lab, Thompson? This is going too far!"

"If I may interrupt," said Craig, "there is the possibility that an evil vampire is lurking in this lab!"

"Vampire? You flooded the lab for such a ridiculous reason?!"

"It's anything but ridiculous! I'm only doing what is expected of a vampire slayer!"

"That's what's ridiculous! Unbelievable…"

As they carried on their argument, two pairs of eyes were watching from a distance.

"Craig got into trouble," Sara giggled. "No real surprise there."

"How about we do something about the hallway while everyone's busy here?" Grissom suggested.

"Do something? Apart from cleaning up the blood?"

Grissom looked around…until his eyes settled on a lone can of red paint.

_Perfect…_

They were soon looking at a clean floor where the blood had once been.

"Okay, we got it cleaned up."

"It's sparkling," smiled Sara.

"All that's left," Grissom picked up the can of paint, "is to use this."

"It feels kind of…excessive."

"Say no more. I feel the same."

They poured the paint onto the floor and climbed out of the taped-off area.

"There. Diversionary tactics complete." Grissom put his arm around Sara. "We can go to the break room now, if you want."

Sara disentangled herself from him. "Gil, we're still at work. Someone might see…and yes, I think we could both do with some coffee right now."

As they walked away, Sara forgot about the string trap, and set it off again. The clattering started, causing both of them to turn around.

"Crap."

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't tell me Craig and the others are…"

"What do we do?"

"Is it gone?" Craig stopped in front of the yellow tape. Behind him was practically the entire population of the crime lab and, of course, an incredibly annoyed Ecklie.

"Thompson, we haven't finished talking yet."

"I keep telling you, there's a vampire! If you'd just look at this," Craig pointed to the paint without looking at it, "you'll understand."

Meanwhile, Sara and Grissom were hiding in a cramped cupboard in the break room.

"I've been thinking…we didn't really need to hide, did we?" said Grissom.

"Sorry. I was all confused, so I hid."

Grissom looked at her hard, as best he could in the dark. "Are you okay, Sara? You look like you're in pain."

"It's cramped in here, so the temperature's higher," Sara could feel herself turning redder, "so…I think my blood's increasing again…"

She clung on to his shirt, pressing her face into his chest. _I don't think I'll be able to hold it in…_

_It's coming out…_

"Sara, are you…" Grissom started to speak, but when Sara looked up at him, he realised that she had blood covering her nose and mouth, and that she was close to tears.

"I'm sorry, Gil, I couldn't hold it in…"

"It's okay," Grissom took his shirt off, revealing a T-shirt underneath.

Sara's eyes widened. "You're wearing a T-shirt as well? In this weather?"

He shrugged. "Here, wipe the blood off on here."

"I'm sorry for getting blood on your shirt."

"It's okay, Sara, you couldn't help it. Besides, it'll come out when I wash it."

"In there! Come out, vampire!"

They both froze.

"They've got us cornered," Grissom whispered.

"What do we do?"

The company outside stood waiting, with Catherine and Warrick wondering what Grissom and Sara might be doing if they were in there.

Suddenly, the doors opened, and out came Grissom wearing a T-shirt, carrying Sara, who was holding a shirt covered with blood. He ran out of the break room and down the corridor.

Of course, nobody apart from Warrick and Catherine seemed to notice the blood-covered shirt. Everyone else seemed to be more focused on the fact that their boss had been in somewhat of a state of undress in a compact closet with one of their co-workers.

Catherine smiled to herself. _Thank God Ecklie got called away. They'd have never heard the end of it if he was here…_

"I do believe we've just witnessed something amazing!"

"I know! In the lab! They're very daring!"

"Certainly stimulating!"

"Dr Grissom," Craig said to himself, "You were in such a shameful state of undress with Sara…unforgivable!"

"That should be my line!"

Everyone turned round to see Ecklie stood in the doorway of the break room.

"What do you mean by vampires, Thompson? That pool in the hallway is just paint, isn't it?"

They all raced to DNA to see if it was true and, sure enough, just by the door, there was the pool. And it was most definitely paint.

"I-Impossible!" Craig stared in shock. "How could I, a slayer, confuse paint with blood?"

"You've caused a huge fuss, Thompson," said Ecklie. "I'm sure you understand the implications."

"I really just want to have something to eat and go to bed," Sara yawned as she opened the door to her apartment.

"Sara!" Annabelle leapt at her, knocking her back into the opposite wall. Grissom chuckled as he watched Sara trying to stand up with Annabelle clinging onto her.

"What's so funny, Gilbert?" Sara scowled at him, "Do you want to be suffocated, too?"

She launched herself at him and, once again, forgot how strong she was, thus sending both of them flying across the living room and into the armchair.

"Wow, Sara, I didn't realise you were so demanding of him," said a familiar voice.

They both looked up to find Catherine, Heather and Sophia looking at them with knowing smiles.

"Catherine…" Sara narrowed her eyes.

"Well, what you guys do in private isn't really any of my business…although this isn't really what you'd call private, and yet-"

"Catherine!" Sara launched herself at her.

As they all ate a tempura-filled breakfast, Annabelle announced, "Sara, you and I are going to the library."

"_You're_ going to the library. I'm going to sleep," Sara yawned.

"I'll confiscate your chocolate mushroom biscuits."

"We'll be going then!" Sara proceeded to drag Annabelle out of the door, leaving a dumbfounded party of people in Sara's flat.

"Aren't you going to ask why we're here?" asked Annabelle, typing away on a computer.

"I don't care why we're here," Sara looked up from her crime novel. "I just didn't want my biscuits being confiscated."

"Hey, I just wanted to see what your local library was like, is all."

Sara looked closely at the computer screen, and her eyes widened. "WHAT ARE YOU-"

"It's a library, Sara!" Annabelle hissed.

Sara put her book down and walked over to her. "What are you doing?!"

"Hacking the library's computer system. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"And just _when_ did you learn to hack?"

"Self-taught. I _was_ a hacker in one of my past lives, you know."

Sara rolled her eyes.

Since vampires remained youthful for a very long time, they were usually on the move every ten to twenty years, depending on the situation. Sara had done the same thing, mostly keeping her first name and changing her surname. Annabelle had done the same, whilst referring to her previous assumed identities as her 'past lives', which, in Sara's opinion, made her seem as though she was into reincarnation, even though she wasn't.

Then again, considering that most vampires lived for several hundred years, Sara found the idea of reincarnation rather…boring. Knowing her luck, if she was ever to get reincarnated, it would probably happen far too many times and she'd remember everything.

_Not a good prospect_, thought Sara.

"So, why are you hacking into the library's computer system?" asked Sara.

"I'm confirming something I saw earlier that the librarian had written down."

"You take note of things like that?"

"Aha! Here it is!"

"Here what is?"

Annabelle pointed to the screen. "Guess who recently borrowed a book on vampire lore?"

Sara read the name. "Kirstie…Thompson?! No way!"

"And I don't think it's a coincidence."

"So, who is she? His mother? Sister? Cousin?"

"Whatever she is to him, if she's reading books about vampires from the library, she's probably just as misguided as he is. So we're still safe…"

Kirstie walked down the street, studying everyone she laid eyes on.

_I hate her, but I've never actually met her,_ she thought, _If Annabelle is in Vegas, chances are she could be any one of these people._

_But equally, these are the people I have to protect…_

"Excuse me, did you drop this?"

She turned round, and came face-to-face with a young-looking woman with brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was holding out a hand, in which lay a golden cross.

Her golden cross.

"I can't believe I nearly lost it!" Kirstie took it from her. "My grandma got this for me, so it's very precious."

"All the more reason to keep it safe."

"Annabelle!" A virtually identical woman emerged from the crowd.

"Is she your twin?" Kirstie asked.

"No, she's my cousin, but lots of people mistake us for being sisters. And now I just had my hair cut, we look practically identical."

"I won't keep you, then," Kirstie smiled.

The woman returned the smile and began walking off. "Remember to keep it safe!" she called over her shoulder.

Kirstie realised that it was the first time in a long time that she'd actually smiled. _What a delightful young woman…she's the kind of person I don't want to be harmed by vampires…_

_That's right…I'll fight until all vampires are eradicated from this earth!_

"No way," Sara gawped at the sight in front of her.

Her apartment was…clean. They'd actually cleaned up after themselves!

_For once…_

"At least we don't have to do any washing up," Annabelle flopped down on the couch.

"So, what did you think of Kirstie?" Sara sat down next to her and put her head on her shoulder.

"She was nice enough to me, but then again, it was clear that she thought I was human."

"Well, if she'd known the truth, who knows what…might've…happened…"

Annabelle looked at Sara, and realised that she was asleep. She rearranged her so that Sara's head was in her lap.

Annabelle had decided that she wouldn't make the first move. There wouldn't be a point in even making a move unless they did.

Her granddaughter, the one whose hair she was stroking right now, was the most precious thing in the world to her. And if vampire slayers ever tried to harm her…

…she'd simply have to kill them.

* * *

I have made a decision...the slipper will return next chapter...but Heather could always do something earlier...so it's a good idea to...review!! They make me happy!


	11. Getting caught is so embarrassing

My...freaking...days...2 months since I updated...admittedly a corrupted hard drive and lots of coursework hasn't helped...as well as my new obsession with Jade Dynasty...

New aspect of the story is introduced, because I could. Character development alert!

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Karin. And since my last few attempts to capture Anju have been unsuccessful, I'll simply steal her clothes.

* * *

**Getting caught is so embarrassing**

Sara had told Annabelle at the time that getting her hair cut was a bad idea. That and the fact that Annabelle had no gap in her teeth were the only real differences between them. Now, everybody was getting the two of them mixed up.

Including, unfortunately, Nick.

Sara was walking towards the break room when she heard Nick say, "Hey, Sara, how are you and Catherine doing?"

Within two seconds, Sara was standing in the door of the break room.

"Sara, what's this I hear about you and Catherine?" Annabelle raised an eyebrow. "I never thought you swung that way…"

_Whoops, wrong Sidle,_ thought Nick.

"I don't! Nick, it's not what you-"

"I thought you were happy with him…"

"Annabelle, calm down!"

Annabelle immediately became starry-eyed. "You called me by my name! Usually, it's just Gra-"

Sara shot her a warning look, making Annabelle stop short of revealing her true identity. Her face then became stern. "Sara…you're impure."

"But-"

"Who's 'him'?" asked Nick. "Wait…is it Greg?"

"Noooo!" Sara frantically shook her head.

"Warrick?"

_Catherine would kill me…_

"Hodges?"

_Wendy would kill me…_

"Henry?"

_Surely somebody would kill me…_

"Is this boy really that clueless?" asked Annabelle.

Sara's eyes widened. _She called him a boy…_

"So I'm a boy now, Anna?" Nick grinned.

_Uh oh…I have to get her out of here before she _completely_ exposes herself…_

"She's like that with everyone," Sara grabbed Annabelle's hand and dragged her out of the room, "See you around, Nick!"

Sara pushed Annabelle up against a wall. "If you keep talking to them like a doting grandmother, they're going to suspect something."

"Oh, relax, Sara, you already told them that I was older."

"Not by four hundred and fifty years!" Sara hissed.

At that moment, Sara felt something strike the back of her head.

"Ow! What was-" Sara turned round to find a smiling Heather standing behind her, wielding her red slipper. "Oh, hi, Heather. What are you-"

"You need to be careful tonight," Heather's face suddenly became serious.

_Why is she always so cryptic?_ Sara wondered.

"What do you mean?" Sara asked her.

"Just…be careful, okay?"

About half an hour later, the whole team was out at a crime scene. There was no definite clue as to whether their two victims had been dumped in the forest or killed there. There was no murder weapon and little blood, but the state of the surrounding area suggested a struggle.

Why did her job have to be so difficult?

On top of which, Sara had absolutely no idea what to make of Heather's warning. Even here at a crime scene in the middle of the woods, she couldn't find anything to be particularly wary of.

"You got anything?" Catherine yelled.

"Nothing," Sara replied.

Suddenly, she heard a cracking sound, like footsteps, to her left. She looked, but there was nothing there.

She tried to concentrate on collecting evidence, but she had the overbearing feeling that she was being watched.

"I'm gonna go see how Greg's doing," Sara told Catherine, and rushed off.

Now she was sure that they weren't alone. But who, or what, was it?

She saw Greg collecting some twig samples by the foot of a tree. She grinned wickedly. _Maybe if I crept up on him…_

She moved so that she was in a position where he wouldn't be able to see her…and that's when she saw it.

In the shadows, there was something lurking.

And Sara had her doubts as to whether or not that something was human.

Then it stepped out of the shadows…and Sara struggled to hold back a gasp.

_A blood hoarder?_

It sprang at Greg, who turned around just in time to see Sara jump in front of him. As he stood up, he realised she was trying to defend him from…well, he wasn't entirely sure what it was. It had a human form, but its eyes were wild and glowing red. On top of that, it had…fangs.

_A vampire?_

Sara was struggling to hold off the creature. It had been a long time since she'd come face to face with a blood hoarder, and she'd forgotten just how strong they could be.

She looked over its shoulder and saw a familiar figure stood by a tree, wielding a sword. Within a second, that same person was right behind the creature.

"Heather, what are you-"

"Duck!"

As she did so, Heather swung the sword and cut off the blood hoarder's head, causing both the head and body to turn to dust.

Sara turned to Greg who, to her surprise, looked more shocked than scared.

"I'm sorry, Sara…you shouldn't have had to protect me…"

_Thud._

"No, really, Greg, please don't be upset-"

"But I should've-"

_Thud._

He suddenly found himself pinned up against the tree, courtesy of Sara.

"Sara, what are you-"

"I _told_ you not to get upset, Greg."

She leaned in closer to him. "Now you just relax, and I'll make all your unhappiness go away."

She felt her fangs elongate as she got closer to his neck, but just as she was about to bite him, she came to her senses and realised what she was doing. _I can't bite Greg! He's one of my best friends!_

She backed away rapidly, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Sara, it's okay. I already saw them."

Tears began to form in her eyes. "Greg…you have to understand…I was scared…"

"Scared of what?" he asked.

"Scared that nobody would accept me…scared that I'd be driven out…scared that I'd cause everybody trouble…"

Greg stepped forward and came to stand in front of her. After standing there for a few moments, he surprised her by embracing her tightly.

"It doesn't matter what you are, Sara," he said to her, "If you wanted to bite me, you'd have done so before now."

He pulled away to see her wearing the biggest smile he'd seen on her in ages.

"So, where does Heather fit in?"

"Well, actually…she'd also a vampire."

Greg looked at Heather. "_And_ she's just been stood there, this whole time, watching us…"

"She likes to observe."

"Guys!" Catherine's voice floated through the air as she, Warrick, Grissom and Nick burst into the clearing. "Where have you been? Are you okay?"

Sara quickly replaced her hand over her mouth. _What will Nick do if he sees them?_

"Sara, _are_ you okay?" Nick took a step towards her.

Sara's eyes widened. _No…he can't see them…_

"Sara, do you want me to deal with him?"

Everyone, except for Sara and Greg, jumped at the sound of Heather's voice, not having realised that she was there. Sara did, however, do a double take at what Heather was now holding in her hand.

"You brought the slipper with you?" Catherine stared in disbelief.

"No, Heather, there's no need." Sara smiled, then realised her mistake about half a second before Nick looked back at her. Then Nick looked at her. Particularly her mouth.

"F…f…fangs!" Nick slowly backed away from her.

Catherine cringed. _This was't how I'd imagined them finding out…_

"You're a…vampire?" Nick stared in shock. "That's...unbelievable! In fact...maybe...maybe Catherine's a vampire! Maybe Heather...maybe even Sophia!"

Sara's eyes bugged out. "How did you know that?"

After Nick promptly fainted, Sara turned to Greg. "You seem to be taking all this very well."

"Believe me, it's proving hard to take in." Greg turned to Heather. "That…thing you killed…what was it?"

"That was a blood hoarder," Heather replied, "and if Sara and I hadn't intervened when we did, you'd be dead right now."

* * *

"Maybe it would be better if Annabelle explained," said Heather.

After shift, they'd all gathered at Sara's apartment, which seemed to have become a regular meeting place.

"I bet Annabelle isn't actually your cousin," Greg grinned.

"Actually, she isn't," Sara sighed. _What's the point in lying to them now?_

"Sara's my granddaughter!" Annabelle smiled.

Catherine and Warrick face-palmed simultaneously.

Grissom smiled slightly.

Greg and Sophia cringed.

Nick fainted again.

Sara sighed deeply. _She always announces shocking things so bluntly…_

Heather whacked Annabelle with her slipper. "Annabelle, I don't think Nick was ready for that."

Annabelle sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better explain."

She noticed Sara with her hand up. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Yes, Sara?"

"Greg and Nick are pretty much in the dark about…everything," Sara pointed out.

"That's true." Annabelle sighed again. "To answer your first question, yes, I'm a vampire too. To answer your other questions, crosses, sunlight, running water, garlic, the majority of other myths about vampires…they don't apply." She grinned. "And, as you might have guessed, we don't sparkle."

"And blood hoarders…" Sara urged her on.

"It's rare for a human to be turned into a vampire," Annabelle began, "and that can only be done by a vampire injecting the human with venom. The ones with a strong will are able to surpress their need for blood and carry life on as normal, but are bound to the vampire for the rest of the vampire's life. The ones who succumb to their new cravings, however, are what we call blood hoarders, and once they're in this state, they become uncontrollable."

_Thud._

"Are you okay, Sara?" Grissom asked her, noticing her looking intently at everyone.

"I'm fine, Gil," Sara answered. About two seconds later, she realised what she'd just said.

Nick and Greg stared at her, wide-eyed. "You called him Gil," Nick said.

"Finally!" Annabelle yelled, exasperated. "And it took you _how_ long to work that one out?!"

"So, Sara and Catherine-"

"We're not a couple!" Catherine yelled.

Upon hearing this, everyone burst out laughing. "But I thought we had something," Sara faked a pout.

"Sara," Annabelle's voice was stern, "If you ever cheat on him…"

* * *

Sara sometimes wondered why she bothered.

Heather had insisted on giving her one of her blades, saying that she needed to be careful 'in case there were more'.

_Not likely, Heather._

And if that was annoying, she and Grissom were stuck with a B&E, the worst of all cases. Not that she minded the company, of course.

She noticed that, whenever he had to go past her to get something, he always made sure to brush up against her and linger slightly.

"Now I know your true intentions for dragging me out here," Sara narrowed her eyes. "You just wanted to get me alone, didn't you?"

Grissom said nothing, but the smile on his face said it all.

_Honestly…_

Sara suddenly had a strange feeling. The kind of strange feeling that told her something bad was about to happen.

_Thud._

A woman screamed.

_Maybe Heather was right…_

She ran out into the main entrance of the mall and froze.

The place was crawling with blood hoarders. Their deranged appearances and inhuman red eyes were causing everyone to flee.

And the worst part? Heather's sword was in the Denali.

Great.

"Sara, what are you-" Grissom stopped dead behind her.

"Gil, get the sword from the Denali," she said quietly.

"But Sara-"

She suddenly flung her arms around him.

"Gil, I know you want to protect me," she looked up at him, "but this time, I'm the one who has to do the protecting." She planted a chaste kiss on his lips. "Please."

* * *

Heather felt another shock run through her body as she steered round the corner.

_It's always like this…everytime a blood hoarder appears, this happens…_

She'd always been sensitive to the prescence of blood hoarders, and she had no idea why. When she reacted to them, it was as though something was giving her an electric shock at regular intervals.

Very annoying.

As she sped along, she noticed a familiar figure walking by the side of the road. She smiled.

She came to a stop and wound down the window. "Annabelle, get in!"

Annabelle spun round. "Heather! What are you-"

"No time. Blood hoarders."

Annabelle was in the passenger seat in seconds.

"Are they far?" asked Annabelle as they set off.

Heather shook her head. "They're in the main entrance of the mall up ahead."

"So you can tell where they are, even if you haven't been there…interesting…"

Annabelle was struck by a sudden pang of pain, one that was not too unfamiliar to her. She gripped the door handle tightly and sat up straight, staring straight ahead with her eyes wide open.

"Gil and Sara are there," she stated.

Heather slammed the brakes on, not caring that she'd stopped right in the middle of the road. She looked at Annabelle. "They're _where_?"

"At the mall…and Gil…"

Heather's eyes widened. "What about him? Tell me!"

"Sara will send him to get the sword you gave her while she fends off the blood hoarders, but as he comes back to her, he'll…"

Heather frowned. _Why is she talking as if this hasn't happened yet?_

_Or…maybe it _hasn't _happened yet…_

"Annabelle…he'll what?"

"If Sara can't change anything," Annabelle lowered her voice, "there's no hope for him…or for her."

* * *

Sara leant against the wall as she struggled to catch her breath. The blood hoarders had successfully driven away all the shoppers, and since Grissom was safe outside, she'd managed to escape for a while, and was now hiding in a nearby shop.

Without a weapon as yet, she'd had to resort to ripping off the blood hoarders' heads, which wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, but since they turned to dust afterwards, it wasn't too bad.

She heard a familiar voice float through the air. "Sara, I've got-"

_Gil._

Sara bolted from the store as she heard his voice cut off, and suddenly stopped dead.

Grissom was pinned against a wall, courtesy of a female blood hoarder, who seemed to be moving very slowly towards his neck…or maybe she was simply imagining her slowness.

Within seconds, Sara had wrestled the blood hoarder off him. Noticing the sword, she quickly swiped it off the ground. Only before she could finish the job, someone did so for her.

Sara looked up to see…

"Grandma?" Sara stared at Annabelle, totally bemused. "What are you doing here?"

"Heather brought me here," Annabelle jabbed a thumb at Heather, who was currently beheading some blood hoarders with amazing swiftness.

"Why, did she know they were going to be here or something?" Sara lightly joked.

"Somehow, yeah, she did."

Sara turned to Grissom. "Stay there, this won't take long," she said, moving just in time to acoid being attacked by a blood hoarder.

_And if I try to help, she'll kill me…_

Within another few minutes, Sara, Annabelle and Heather had successfully taken out all the blood hoarders that were in the mall entrance.

"Wir sind erfolgreich!" Sara smiled.

"Meine Güte, ich hoffe, dass Gil keine Angst vor uns hat, wegen was ist gerade passiert," Annabelle looked worried.

"Vor uns? Nein! Und…'meine Güte'?" Sara giggled. "Es ist lustig, wenn du das sagst!"

"Guys!" Heather grabbed hold of both of them. "You know I can't understand a word you say when you talk German…"

Grissom walked cautiously over to them. "So…what now?"

Heather looked around. "Seeing as there was no police car outside, I'm assuming the officer took off without checking to see if the two of you were alright."

Sara bit her lip. _Whoops, kinda forgot about him…_

Sara linked her fingers through Grissom's. "Right now, Gil and I need to finish processing the scene. But as for this," she gestured around her at the trashed entrance, "I have no idea."

They suddenly heard loud noises outside: shouting, car doors slamming shut, and a voice saying, "They were in here, I swear!"

The four of them looked at each other in dismay. Tonight was going to be a long night.

* * *

She and Grissom had fought the 'monsters' off with what they could find in order to save their fellow citizens. Annabelle and Heather had seen the commotion and come to help them.

That was the story that was circulating round and, thankfully, nobody suspected anything more. To her knowledge, anyway.

_I've been so tired recently._

But now, after an incredibly long shift, Sara was going to have a long, well-deserved sleep, curled up in bed with the teddy bear she'd been secretly sleeping with since she was six.

_But I've never given him a name._

Just as she went to unlock the door…she found it already unlocked.

_You're kidding._

She opened the door and, sure enough, the usual suspects-Heather, Catherine, Sophia,Grissom and, of course, Annabelle-were all seated in her living room, along with the addition of Warrick and…

"Why are Nick and Greg here?" asked Sara.

"Well, they pretty much know everything, so I dragged them along," Catherine smiled.

"But why are you all here?" A sudden thought hit her, one that should have probably done so a while ago. "Better yet, _how_ do you always get in here?"

"I made a copy of your key," said Heather.

_So that's how…_

"We're here because of what happened earlier," Heather continued, cradling her slipper in her lap.

"Well, I kind of already guessed," Sara sat down next to Grissom, "They don't just appear out of nowhere. Someone somewhere has turned them."

"If we don't find out who's behind it soon…"

"Then Vegas is pretty much screwed?" Greg chipped in.

"Well done, Greg," Sara grinned.

"Wait…do Craig and his sister know about blood hoarders?" Sophia asked.

"Craig…vampire slayer…" Nick began to smile. "So he was actually along the right lines the other night?"

Sara smiled sheepishly. "Well, since he pretty much fails as a slayer, he hasn't figured it out yet, so he's still stalking me and Catherine."

"Well, guys," Annabelle smiled, "When it comes to his knowledge of blood hoarders, maybe we should just ask him."

* * *

"Sara, did you hear about that incident at the mall?"

Sara smiled. _Perfect. I didn't even have to say anything…_

"Yes, actually," Sara turned away from her evidence to face him. "What about it?"

"All those people being chased away by…vampires…"

Her ears pricked up at that. "Vampires?"

"Yes…those out-of-control, bloodthirsty creatures…"

_So that's what he thinks vampires look like. Interesting._

"Well, I was working on a case there. I helped fight them off."

"Oh Sara, you are a true friend of vampire slayers everywhere!" Craig attempted to hug her, but she stepped out of the way so that he ended up hugging thin air.

They both turned at the sound of high heels. And in walked…

Well, Sara knew it was Craig's sister. She'd probably seen her the other day; would she recognise her?

But…why was her blood reacting? There was also that smell, the smell which was present on Craig but even more potent and…the aura of unhappiness radiating from her was…overwhelming.

"Hey, guys, what's-" Catherine entered, then gripped the door frame as she looked at Kirstie.

_This must be the sister Sara and Annabelle told me about…and she's so stressed…_

"Catherine, I don't think you've met my sister…"

Catherine wasn't listening to Craig. Instead, she was more focused on the fact that Sara's hands were covering her nose, and that there were a few familiar voices in the background belonging to people who didn't work in the lab.

Catherine stepped forward, grabbed Sara's arm and dragged her out of the lab.

"Catherine, what are you-"

Catherine pointed down the corridor.

Annabelle was already at the lab, so it wasn't her voice that had piqued her interest. Rather, it was Heather and Sophia's voices that had done so, and seeing Annabelle and Heather preventing Sophia from proceeding any further down the corridor, she could see why.

Catherine dragged Sara towards them, as she asked, "Guys, what's going on?"

"We came over to see how things were going with Craig," Heather gripped Sophia's arm tightly, pulling her back, "but there seems to be a lot of...hostility..."

"And jealousy," Sophia's eyes were wide.

Annabelle frowned. "If all of you are badly affected, then surely it should affect me too..."

"Wow, where did you guys go?" Craig appeared in the corridor, dragging Kirstie with him.

All of them shrank back, except for Annabelle. She just stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed.

"Gr-Annabelle," Sara caught herself, "what's wrong?"

She wasn't expecting her to drop limply to the ground.

* * *

Annabelle opened her eyes to find herself stretched out on Sara's couch. As she sat up, she saw Sara sat at the opposite end, staring straight ahead.

Sara turned to look at her, and Annabelle could tell that she wasn't at all happy.

"Sara?"

Sara smiled coldly. "Looks like you have a lot of explaining to do...Annabelle."

_Uh oh._

When Sara called her by her given name in private, it meant only one thing. She was _incredibly mad_.

"Explaining?"

"Oh, you know...how did you know where Gil and I were that night? Why did you suddenly faint for no reason after commenting that you weren't reacting to Kirstie? And why is there so much you've never explained to me?"

Annabelle bit her lip. "Well, if it weren't for Heather, I wouldn't have found you."

Sara frowned. "Heather?"

"She can sense blood hoarders...which is why she picked me up on her way to the shopping centre...and I had a vision showing the two of you there," Annabelle rushed the last part.

"You had...a vision?" Sara stared in disbelief. "You can see the future...and yet you never-"

"I can't always," Annabelle admitted. "Certain things trigger it from time to time. I don't have the ability to see the future at will."

"Well...what about Kirstie?"

"I don't always react," Annabelle walked away from her.

"You mean..."

"I'm faulty!" Annabelle blushed. "Sometimes I react, sometimes I don't."

"Don't react to...what?"

"Hatred."

Sara moved closer to her. "But everyone hates someone to a certain extent."

"But that's not the kind of hatred I react to," said Annabelle. "It's not the light, superficial kind. It's the deeply rooted kind, developed over years of pure animosity towards another person." She looked at Sara. "That's the kind of hatred I react to. The kind Kirstie lives with every day. The reason I have to leave Vegas."

Sara looked shocked. "Why? Why can't you stay?"

"Because of her hatred..."

"You know...you know who she hates, don't you?"

"It's me."

* * *

And now Sara knows...but what will happen? Dun dun dun!

Wir sind erfolgreich!=We are successful!

Meine Güte, ich hoffe, dass Gil keine Angst vor uns hat, wegen was ist gerade passiert=My goodness, I hope that Gil isn't scared of us because of what just happened

Vor uns? Nein! Und…'meine Güte'? Es ist lustig, wenn du das sagst!=Of us? No! And...'my goodness'? It's funny when you say that!

German translations for you lovely people, which will always be at the bottom when I include this fit language in the chapter. Saves using translators-they fail.

Sooo...rate and review! Holidays soon-revision, Jade Dynasty and fanfics for the win! Speaking fo Jade Dynasty, it gave me the idea for a rather random fanfic, coming soon...*hands Heather a wad of cash*


End file.
